Title: Cat's Cradle
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Original Copyright : 1963
My Rating: 3.5 out of 5 stars ( clever )
Back-Cover Description
Cat's Cradle is Kurt Vonnegut's satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocolyptic tale of this planet's ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist, a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer, and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny. A book that left an indelible mark on the entire generation of readers, Cat's Cradle is one of the twentieth century's most important works -- and Vonnegut at his very best.My Thoughts
Cat's Cradle is a story about the interesting ways people may naively affect the viability of their species long term existence told with the comic absurdity for which Vonnegut is known.
The story revolves around a free-lance writer who is researching the life of a scientist involved with the Manhattan project for a book he was writing about nuclear war. Unbeknownst to all but a few members of his family, the scientist, before he died worked on one last, seemingly innocuous invention. It was never intended as a weapon; the military just wanted a way to keep the marines from getting muddy in the field. The project was never formally pursued, but the scientist, in his curiosity, worked on it during his spare time. This small insignificant invention it turned out, if mishandled, has the ability to destroy the world.
When Cat's Cradle was published in 1963, the cold war was on everyone's mind. It was all but certain that humans would destroy themselves at the hand of a large weapon (read: the Atomic bomb) which was developed solely for the intent of intimidation and destruction. But Cat's Cradle puts forward the idea that the end could be brought on, not by a large explosion, but by something as small as a grain of sand which was developed more out of curiosity than malicious intent. Adding to this plot line, Vonnegut weaves in a new religion called Bokonism which openly states that its canon is based in lies and a small banana republic in the Caribbean which changes governments more often than most people change their socks. All of these layers complement each other very well and they build upon themselves in more and more outlandish ways throughout the book.
Cat's Cradle is a quick read that was extremely clever and funny. I didn't give it 4 stars just because it was such a short read and there were just a few ideas he could have expanded upon. On the whole, my expectations were met and I would recommend this book to most anyone.
On a side note, I need to relay a story which happened whilst reading this book on a flight from Atlanta to San Francisco. First, I read a chapter in Cat's Cradle which chronicled the long twisting path a character follows to the small Caribbean island. One step in his journey, during World War II, he was captured at sea by the Germans and forced to go fight the Partisans in Yugoslavia. This was really weird in that I just finished reading about the Partisan fighters in Yugoslavia in The Forgotten 500. I wouldn't have known who the Partisans were unless I read that book. I thought to myself, "This is neat, two books I've read are connected." Then, about ten minutes later, I decided to take a break from reading and played the in-flight trivia game. One of the questions was, "Which Author invented the religion 'Bokonism'." Then I thought to myself, "Creepy..."
The story revolves around a free-lance writer who is researching the life of a scientist involved with the Manhattan project for a book he was writing about nuclear war. Unbeknownst to all but a few members of his family, the scientist, before he died worked on one last, seemingly innocuous invention. It was never intended as a weapon; the military just wanted a way to keep the marines from getting muddy in the field. The project was never formally pursued, but the scientist, in his curiosity, worked on it during his spare time. This small insignificant invention it turned out, if mishandled, has the ability to destroy the world.
When Cat's Cradle was published in 1963, the cold war was on everyone's mind. It was all but certain that humans would destroy themselves at the hand of a large weapon (read: the Atomic bomb) which was developed solely for the intent of intimidation and destruction. But Cat's Cradle puts forward the idea that the end could be brought on, not by a large explosion, but by something as small as a grain of sand which was developed more out of curiosity than malicious intent. Adding to this plot line, Vonnegut weaves in a new religion called Bokonism which openly states that its canon is based in lies and a small banana republic in the Caribbean which changes governments more often than most people change their socks. All of these layers complement each other very well and they build upon themselves in more and more outlandish ways throughout the book.
Cat's Cradle is a quick read that was extremely clever and funny. I didn't give it 4 stars just because it was such a short read and there were just a few ideas he could have expanded upon. On the whole, my expectations were met and I would recommend this book to most anyone.
On a side note, I need to relay a story which happened whilst reading this book on a flight from Atlanta to San Francisco. First, I read a chapter in Cat's Cradle which chronicled the long twisting path a character follows to the small Caribbean island. One step in his journey, during World War II, he was captured at sea by the Germans and forced to go fight the Partisans in Yugoslavia. This was really weird in that I just finished reading about the Partisan fighters in Yugoslavia in The Forgotten 500. I wouldn't have known who the Partisans were unless I read that book. I thought to myself, "This is neat, two books I've read are connected." Then, about ten minutes later, I decided to take a break from reading and played the in-flight trivia game. One of the questions was, "Which Author invented the religion 'Bokonism'." Then I thought to myself, "Creepy..."
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