Kurt Vonnegut has stated that Galapagos was his best book (see Fates Worse Than Death). For what it’s worth, I agree with him. I also thoroughly enjoyed Cat’s Cradle and Bluebeard.
-Apoptosis
Speaking of Vonnegutesque writers, is anything by Richard Brautigan still in print? I have vague but pleasant memories of his work, and it seems connected in my mind with Vonnegut, only more poetical.
The Sirens of Titan.
Many years ago, I had a lot of trouble in school due to it’s cover.
[neon sign]
So it goes
So it goes
So it goes
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Sirens of Titan, for the greatest Martian invasion ever imagined, among other things.
Mother Night is also fantastic. Been quite a few years since I’ve read it, but I remember that it was one of the best.
- Sirens of Titan “… echo through the vaulted architecture of the universe…”
- Cats Cradle
- Slaughterhouse 5 or The Children’s Crusade
- Venus on the Half-shelf
No, wait. Strike that last one. Sorry.
“Breakfast of Champions” was a turning point where he just went Somewhere Else. Of his later works, only “God Bless You Dr. Kevorkian” wowwed me. But it really isn’t a book. A very small collection of very short essays. A 20 minute read. Isaac Newton standing at the Pearly Gates asking newcomers for data on the path to heaven is great.
Wasn’t Kigore Trout supposed to die a year or two ago?
“Freshman Physics is invariably the most satisfying course taught by any American university.”
You can’t really go wrong with any of them. I would be hard pressed to rank them. Aw hell, I’ll do it anyway:
Cat’s Cradle
Slaughterhouse Five
Galapogos
Sirens of Titan
Breakfast of Champions
Welcome to the Monkey House
Mother Night (probably the “least Vonnegutesque” of his books, in that the weirdness isn’t at the forefront)
Bluebeard
Slapstick
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
The OP is discovering Vonnegut at about the same age I did. I was first turned on to him after I wrote a short story for an English class and my teacher said it was like “Harrison Bergeron.”
The only Vonnegut I’ve read was Welcome to the Monkey House, which is a compilation of short stories. Kind of uneven, ranging from the magnificent to the merely blah. I don’t recall any of the stories actually being bad, though.
Cats Cradle.