If any single novel of Kurt Vonnegut's can represent his unique voice and freewheeling imagination, it is probably the wildly funny and provocative Cat's Cradle, published in 1963. Though it might not be his most substantial or popular novel, Cat's Cradle is a perfect vehicle for his idiosyncratic style and his kaleidoscopic view of the modern world.The story unfolds from the point of view of a narrator, who, in preparing to write a book, wants to know what some famous Americans were up to the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He learns that, on that very day, Dr. Felix Hoenikker—an absent-minded professor who was the erstwhile "father of the atomic bomb"—was uncharacteristically playing with string, making a cat's cradle and terrifying his young son by showing the boy his creation and speaking to him for the first time. Years later, the grown-up Hoenikker children are the key …
If any single novel of Kurt Vonnegut's can represent his unique voice and freewheeling imagination, it is probably the wildly funny and provocative Cat's Cradle, published in 1963. Though it might not be his most substantial or popular novel, Cat's Cradle is a perfect vehicle for his idiosyncratic style and his kaleidoscopic view of the modern world.The story unfolds from the point of view of a narrator, who, in preparing to write a book, wants to know what some famous Americans were up to the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He learns that, on that very day, Dr. Felix Hoenikker—an absent-minded professor who was the erstwhile "father of the atomic bomb"—was uncharacteristically playing with string, making a cat's cradle and terrifying his young son by showing the boy his creation and speaking to him for the first time. Years later, the grown-up Hoenikker children are the key to what follows, possessing as they do the only example of their father's last discovery, a potentially destructive kind of super-ice called "ice-nine." Cat's Cradle is a wild, hurtling apocalyptic tale that satirizes, among many other things, the blithe indifference and goofiness of the people who populate the nuclear science community. The story travels from the home turf of Vonnegut's imagination—Ilium, N.Y.—to a Caribbean banana republic where an illicit religion called Bokononism is practiced, as a sense of doom (in the form of ice-nine) overtakes mankind. The New York Times perhaps said it best in describing Cat's Cradle as "a freewheeling vehicle ... an unforgettable ride."
This is frequently how I feel about vonnegut: he has an incredibly unique voice and is amazing at crafting sentences that hit just right.
But I also don't get a lot out of it. Women are almost always non-characters and I find it distracting. I see the cleverness in the setups but feel bored waiting for the punchlines, like I caught the magician setting up for the trick when I wasn't supposed to.
I don't regret reading this book but I also can't really imagine revisiting it.
My copy of Cat's Cradle was audio from Audible, narrated by Tony Roberts. I'm sure that there's still more layers to this novel that passed me by, but I enjoyed its wicked humour and sharp observations of human behaviour. The storyline is wonderfully outlandish and I would be interested to know if the science of Ice Nine is even feasible? However, it is the calypsos of the Bokononist faith that I think will be the most memorable for me. The astute comments on religion, power, learning and life are so true.
Перачытаў. Тыя ж 5 зорак, што і было, было б больш, паставіў бы больш. Роўна 60 год пасля выданьня кнігі, якая пачынаецца з атамнага бамбаваньня Хірасімы і заканчваецца глябальнай экалягічнай катастрофай, створанай чалавекам, here we are, недзе паміж пагрозай ядзернай вайны і напаўнепазьбежнай экалягічнай катастрофай. Кніга каб спыніцца, адысьці трошкі ў бок і паглядзець на чалавецтва звонку і зразумець, колькі ў ім вар'яцтва і абсурду, колькі складаных стварэньняў, якія як тая гульня ў вяровачку - no damn cat, no damn cradle. Але некаторым з нас пры гэтым пашчасціла ўсё гэта назіраць як разумным істотам, таму напрыканцы мы мабыць пасьпеем яшчэ задраць нос шырока ўхмыляючыся перад тварам няіснага бога, які і стварыў на імгненьне ўсю гэтую хісткую канструкцыю ў сябе на пальцах. А мабыць не.
I have no idea why this book is only three stars for me.
It has everything I usually like in a SF novel. It's an absurd satire of the cold war and religion told with a dry sense of humor with a bit of poetry to add flavor and it embraces the total incomprehensible randomness of the universe and especially people.
So, why do I treat it as only perfectly readable and after reading all other reviews I still have no answers.
Hoe het werk van Vonnegut te karakteriseren? Humor zwart als teer! Het luchtige cynisme! De ironie en nonchalance waarmee de verteller John te werk gaat! Niet eerder las ik zoiets als Cat's Cradle (1963), een van zijn beroemdste romans na het later gepubliceerde Slaughterhouse-Five. Je raast door dit boek heen, dik is het zeker niet, maar iedere alinea is om te huilen zo grappig. En dan heb ik nog niet eens gehad over het kekke omslag, ontworpen door Parra. Liefde op het eerste gezicht.
Cat's Cradle is weer vintage Vonnegut. Hij zet een onwaarschijnlijk verhaal op touwen waarin de fictieve wetenschapper Felix Hoenikker, in het boek één van de mannen achter de atoombom, een chemisch goedje ontdekt dat in potentie een bedreiging vormt voor de hele wereld: ice-nine. Het is een soort ijskristal dat al het water waarmee het in contact komt verder laat kristalliseren, oorspronkelijk uitgevonden met …
Hoe het werk van Vonnegut te karakteriseren? Humor zwart als teer! Het luchtige cynisme! De ironie en nonchalance waarmee de verteller John te werk gaat! Niet eerder las ik zoiets als Cat's Cradle (1963), een van zijn beroemdste romans na het later gepubliceerde Slaughterhouse-Five. Je raast door dit boek heen, dik is het zeker niet, maar iedere alinea is om te huilen zo grappig. En dan heb ik nog niet eens gehad over het kekke omslag, ontworpen door Parra. Liefde op het eerste gezicht.
Cat's Cradle is weer vintage Vonnegut. Hij zet een onwaarschijnlijk verhaal op touwen waarin de fictieve wetenschapper Felix Hoenikker, in het boek één van de mannen achter de atoombom, een chemisch goedje ontdekt dat in potentie een bedreiging vormt voor de hele wereld: ice-nine. Het is een soort ijskristal dat al het water waarmee het in contact komt verder laat kristalliseren, oorspronkelijk uitgevonden met het specifieke doel om de mobiliteit van het Amerikaanse leger te verhogen in moerasgebieden. Het goedje komt na zijn overlijden in handen van zijn drie volwassen kinderen, die alledrie op hun eigen manier bijzondere vogels zijn. John en de Hoenikkers arriveren op het fictieve Caribische eiland San Lorenzo, waar de excentrieke dictator "Papa" Monzano met harde hand regeert. Monzano is ziek en heeft niet lang meer te leven. Hij benoemt Frank Hoenikker, een van de drie kinderen, tot zijn opvolger. Maar Frank beschouwt zichzelf als buitengewoon ongeschikt voor de functie en benoemt de verteller John tot de nieuwe de facto dictator. Frank schenkt dictator John ook nog Monzano's bloedmooie dochter Mona, waarna "Papa" zichzelf met het ice-nine van het leven berooft en daarmee de hel losbreekt.
Zo kan ik nog wel even doorgaan, maar je zult inmiddels doorhebben dat het, zoals ik al aangaf, een onwaarschijnlijk verhaal is. Een fantasierijke parodie op de 'echte' wereld die Vonnegut waarachtig weet te maken door het sardonische plezier waarmee het op papier gezet is. De manier waarop hij droge feiten verweefd met galgenhumor, Vonneguts zogenoemde coping mechanism voor zijn traumatische verleden, is volstrekt uniek te noemen.
Achter alle chaotische en dolkomische ontwikkelingen en de inktzwarte geestigheid waarmee ze te berde worden gebracht sluimert steeds weer de liefde voor wat het leven de moeite waard maakt. Vonnegut was een getekend man en probeerde de pijn met humor te bevechten. Zoals Renate Dorrestein, die haar voorliefde voor Vonneguts verhalen nooit onder stoelen of banken stak, in haar laatste boek Dagelijks werk (2018) zei: 'Juist absurditeit en overdrijving kunnen uitstekende instrumenten zijn om de ellende van het bestaan over het voetlicht te krijgen. De schepping is imperfect en wij zijn dat ook, maar wie kan lachen is mens.' (p. 17)
The third novel by Vonnegut that I've read and probably the one I'm least appealed to, artful and clever as it is. Unlike the top reviewer, I didn't feel that book was gradually losing brightness, quite the opposite, I felt it was gathering pace toward the end. The first part of the book, devoted to the narrator gathering information about Dr. Felix Hoenikker, the (fictional) inventor of the atomic bomb, was less than engaging for me, even Vonnegut's sharp-witted and persuasive (if somewhat abrupt) writing did little to help. The plot started to unfold more rapidly after the narrator travels to (fictional) banana republic San Lorenzo, home to a truly interesting (fictional) religion called Bokononism, for reasons I won't disclose to avoid spoilers, and this was where the book finally got hold of me. The science-fictional idea of Ice-9 results in a story, which most authors would've turned into a …
The third novel by Vonnegut that I've read and probably the one I'm least appealed to, artful and clever as it is. Unlike the top reviewer, I didn't feel that book was gradually losing brightness, quite the opposite, I felt it was gathering pace toward the end. The first part of the book, devoted to the narrator gathering information about Dr. Felix Hoenikker, the (fictional) inventor of the atomic bomb, was less than engaging for me, even Vonnegut's sharp-witted and persuasive (if somewhat abrupt) writing did little to help. The plot started to unfold more rapidly after the narrator travels to (fictional) banana republic San Lorenzo, home to a truly interesting (fictional) religion called Bokononism, for reasons I won't disclose to avoid spoilers, and this was where the book finally got hold of me. The science-fictional idea of Ice-9 results in a story, which most authors would've turned into a grim warning for mankind, but it sounds more like sad mockery of a human race and it's nature, when told by Vonnegut. Three and a half stars to a good book, that just didn't resonate with me, rounded up to four.
Before Cat's Cradle, I had read Slaughterhouse Five and Breakfast of Champions, both of which had a more humorous tone to them, so when I bought this, I thought it was going to be more of the same. In that sense, I was disappointed with the book, since it turned out to have a mostly serious tone to it.
Cat's Cradle, in my experience, is Vonnegut's most lauded novel, but I did not enjoy it as much as the other two I've read. It seemed like the story never moved--like every major plot point was just the precursor to something that never happened. It felt like just the opening chapters to a much longer novel.
However, with all that said, it is very readable. Any fan of Vonnegut will love this book. Perhaps my assumptions about the book soured the experience for me (and for this reason I will eventually …
Before Cat's Cradle, I had read Slaughterhouse Five and Breakfast of Champions, both of which had a more humorous tone to them, so when I bought this, I thought it was going to be more of the same. In that sense, I was disappointed with the book, since it turned out to have a mostly serious tone to it.
Cat's Cradle, in my experience, is Vonnegut's most lauded novel, but I did not enjoy it as much as the other two I've read. It seemed like the story never moved--like every major plot point was just the precursor to something that never happened. It felt like just the opening chapters to a much longer novel.
However, with all that said, it is very readable. Any fan of Vonnegut will love this book. Perhaps my assumptions about the book soured the experience for me (and for this reason I will eventually reread it), but in any case, I'd recommend it to any fans of literature.
John (Jonah) is an everyman, he tells us about the times he planned to write a book about America and the importance of what they did the day Hiroshima was bombed. He finds himself involved with the children of Felix Hoenikker (a fictional Nobel laureate physicist and known in the book as the father of the atomic bomb). The Hoenikkers lead him to discover a crystal known as Ice-Nine, which they have kept secret and is an alternative structure of water.
Like most of Kurt Vonnegut’s books that I’ve read (with the exception of Breakfast of Champions) Cat’s Cradle is this bizarre journey that isn’t necessarily enjoyable to read but when you finish the book and reflect you start to see the brilliance. I remember with Slaughterhouse-Five when I ended the book I gave it a 2 star rating; it was just plain weird but the book never left my …
John (Jonah) is an everyman, he tells us about the times he planned to write a book about America and the importance of what they did the day Hiroshima was bombed. He finds himself involved with the children of Felix Hoenikker (a fictional Nobel laureate physicist and known in the book as the father of the atomic bomb). The Hoenikkers lead him to discover a crystal known as Ice-Nine, which they have kept secret and is an alternative structure of water.
Like most of Kurt Vonnegut’s books that I’ve read (with the exception of Breakfast of Champions) Cat’s Cradle is this bizarre journey that isn’t necessarily enjoyable to read but when you finish the book and reflect you start to see the brilliance. I remember with Slaughterhouse-Five when I ended the book I gave it a 2 star rating; it was just plain weird but the book never left my thoughts. I digested what I had read and began to understand and slowly that rating grew and now I think it is a work of genius.
As Cat’s Cradle begins to twist and turn in true Vonnegut style you eventually end up in the bizarre and fictitious island of San Lorenzon. The book continues with more twists until it becomes apparent that Ice-Nine can be a very destructive material. The novel is laced in laced with irony and parody, this is part of Vonnegut’s satirical humour and you have to except that he knows what he is doing and let him take you on this journey.
What I think Kurt Vonnegut and the narrator of Cat’s Cradle is trying to tell us as readers is the discovery of Ice-Nine can truly benefit mankind but then you find a military application for it and everything changes. This is a warning, with the amazing advances in technology without any growth in an ethical awareness human annihilation is a real possibility. Vonnegut was living in the Nuclear age when this book was written, the threats felt real and it was what had most people worried. The confrontation between technology and morality is ever present within this modern classic.
But there is a parallel (but similar) message running through Cat’s Cradle as well. John is often known as Jonah in the novel and you have to think biblical for this one. Jonah is a biblical prophet that goes to Nineveh (after much drama) and tells them of their destruction. The people repent and God takes pity on them and the city is spared. A symbolic message; a cautionary warning to the readers of Jonah’s (aka John) prophetic findings that could lead to the end of the world.
In true Vonnegut form, this book will take you on an interesting ride with no possible way of predicting the outcome. The book satirises science, technology, the arms race and even organised religion in this classic post-modern sci-fi novel. It is always hard to talk about a Vonnegut book or even try to explain his literary style, but if you like a dark comedy, science fiction or satire novel then Kurt Vonnegut is always a good choice. I would recommend starting with Slaughterhouse-Five as that is probably considered his magnum opus. Although I wasn’t a fan of Breakfast of Champions, I feel like I’m a true fan of what Vonnegut does and Cat’s Cradle is a good example of that.
This is an easy read and thought-provoking if you let it be. Which might pale in comparison to Vonnegut's works that leave you no such choice, but still stands out from the brain candy of most science fiction.
