This is a strange one. It's a pastiche of various Vonnegut stories that was made into a strange film for PBS. It has all the makings of a cult classic but, sadly, the movie was never released on any format that I know. That said the book is very funny and, if you love Vonnegut you can't help but be entertained.

A little strange, but something the Vonnegut fan will enjoy

This is not one that reads especially well--it was a teleplay for a PBS production back in the mid-1970s, a production that was more than memorable but is now almost impossible to find except on pirate sites. Worth looking for, but don't download a virus...

a teleplay mash-up of the text from various vonnegut novels. just read the source material instead.

A mishmash of some of Vonnegut's works, imagined as some odd time/space traveling adventure. I read it in about 45 minutes.

So, if you read my review of "Mother Night," this is the Vonnegut book I recently found in a used book store in Philadelphia that I had never heard of. With good reason, it turns out.
Sorry to start this off sounding like Andy Rooney.
You might also remember from that review that I said it's nearly impossible to give anything by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr less than 4 stars. But this is, essentially, NOT a Kurt Vonnegut book. It is the script for the teleplay of the same name (redundant? maybe. deal with it. I swear! I'm not Andy Rooney!).
I know you're still intrigued. So was I.
Basically, a bunch of hardcore Vonnegut fans got together in 1971/1972, and took pieces, scenarios and, arguably, scenes from his works, and attempted to tie them together for a production to air on Public Television (by which point, Vonnegut had written and published the following: "Player Piano," "the Sirens of Titan," "Canary in a Cathouse," "Mother Night," "Cat's Cradle," "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater," "Happy Birthday, Wanda June," "Welcome to the Monkeyhouse," and "Slaughterhouse-Five").
Kurt Vonnegut at points, contributed a few jokes and other minimal bits to the teleplay, but it was otherwise more of an homage than anything else, and it really comes across more like a Stage Review ("hey, remember BOKONON? Well, HERE HE IS!!" That kind of stuff).
Don't get me wrong. I WILL find and watch this broadcast.
But as a book, this is pretty dull, not particularly funny, and horribly laid out (it's crammed with black and white photos from the production, and the type is weirdly aligned).
There is one great moment, as in all Vonnegut works, and it comes from the introduction, written, if course, by Vonnegut. I'll reproduce it here for your enjoyment, rather than leave you with a digital "you had to be there." On the subject of film adaptations of books:
"I have become an enthusiast for the printed word again. I have to be that, I now understand, because I want to be a character in all of my works. I can do that in print. In a movie, somehow, the author always vanishes. Everything of mine that has been filmed so far has been one character short, and the character is me.
I don't mean that I am a glorious character. I simply mean that, for better or for worse, I have always rigged my stories so as to include myself, and I can't stop now. And I do this so slyly, as do most novelists, that the author can't be put on film.
Every deeply felt novel which has been turned into a movie has, as a movie, seemed one character short to me. It has made me uneasy on that account. I suspect that the audience has vaguely uneasy, too - for the same reason."

I am biased.

I read this play. I also saw the PBS adaption of it for television when it first aired.

Definitely an intriguing teleplay with a lot of Cat's Cradle references. Very curious how the actual television show is. The images really help bring you into the teleplay. Fast read while getting an oil change.

Giving such a low rating to a Vonnegut book feels really wrong to me. But this is just his words and bits of his stories put together by somebody else for a television play so I can't feel too bad. The cover says it was written by him but the cover page says 'based on the materials by Kurt Vonnegut.' That cover tricked me. I found this in a used book store about two years ago and never got around to it until now. I remember feeling really excited because I had never heard of this book before (and neither had my boyfriend, who is a super Vonnegut fan) and thought it was some kind of rare find. But it turns out the only thing written by Vonnegut himself was the preface. It wasn't a bad story, I guess. I'm sure it translated a lot better on screen. There was just almost nothing to this book. And it had a lot of pictures thrown in, but with nearly no context to support them. There just was not enough to make this pleasant to read. It was mostly just really confusing. I also haven't read all the Vonnegut books that this play referenced so I had to look a few things up. And the book I was reading was literally falling apart as I was reading this. I think 30+ pages fell out one by one. Not the worst/i> thing I've ever read but I don't think it was worth the $5 I spent on it. Not even close.

I read this in high school and it is one of 2 books that I still own from that period of my life. I think my copy is quite valuable, but I should get it appraised. It's funny, irreverent and if you can find a copy I am pretty sure it is an expanded story from Welcome to the Monkey House. It's also a teleplay with pictures from the movie.