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鬲乇亘蹖鬲 丕氐賵賱蹖
亘賴鈥屫必嘿� 囟乇亘丕賴賳诏 爻乇蹖毓 夭賳丿诏蹖 丕賲乇賵夭貙 丕賵賯丕鬲 賲丕 倬乇 丕爻鬲 丕夭 賮乇丕睾鬲鈥屬囏й� 讴賵鬲丕賴 賵 賮乇氐鬲鈥屬囏й� 胤賱丕蹖蹖. 丕鬲丕賯 丕賳鬲馗丕乇 倬夭卮讴 賵 氐賮 亘丕賳讴 賵 賵賯鬲鈥屬囏й屰� 讴賴 鬲賵蹖 鬲丕讴爻蹖 賵 賲鬲乇賵 賲蹖鈥屭柏必з嗃屬呚� 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗀� 賵賯鬲 爻乇讴 讴卮蹖丿賳 丕夭 倬賳噩乇賴鈥屫й� 讴賵趩讴 亘賴 噩賴丕賳 毓噩蹖亘 卮丕賴讴丕乇賴丕蹖 丕丿亘蹖 卮賵丿 賵 賳蹖夭 亘丕乇賴丕 丕鬲賮丕賯 丕賮鬲丕丿賴 讴賴 鬲賱丕卮 讴乇丿賴鈥屫й屬� 賲胤丕賱毓賴 蹖讴蹖 丕夭 丕蹖賳 卮丕賴讴丕乇賴丕 乇丕 丌睾丕夭 讴賳蹖賲 丕賲丕 亘賴鈥屫勠屬� 賴蹖亘鬲 丕孬乇貙 賳丿丕卮鬲賳 夭賲丕賳 讴丕賮蹖 蹖丕 賴賲诏丕賲 賳卮丿賳 亘丕 丨丕賱 賵 賴賵丕蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 丕夭 丕蹖賳 讴丕乇 亘丕夭賲丕賳丿賴鈥屫й屬�. 丿乇 丕蹖賳 賲賵丕賯毓 丿爻鬲乇爻蹖 亘賴 诏夭蹖丿賴鈥屫й� 禺賵卮鈥屫堌з� 賵 賲賳丕爻亘 丕夭 丌孬丕乇 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 賲蹖鈥屫堌з嗀� 噩乇兀鬲 賵 卮賵賯 賲胤丕賱毓賴 賳賵卮鬲賴鈥屫й� 乇丕 讴賴 禺賵丕賳丿賳卮 讴丕乇蹖 卮丕賯 亘賴鈥屬嗀肛� 賲蹖鈥屫必池� 丿乇 賲丕 亘乇丕賳诏蹖夭丿.
94 pages, Paperback
First published March 22, 2012
48 people are currently reading
885 people want to read
About the author
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
650听books36k听followersKurt Vonnegut, Junior was an American novelist, satirist, and most recently, graphic artist. He was recognized as New York State Author for 2001-2003.
He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked as a journalist before joining the U.S. Army and serving in World War II.
After the war, he attended University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology and also worked as a police reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. He left Chicago to work in Schenectady, New York in public relations for General Electric. He attributed his unadorned writing style to his reporting work.
His experiences as an advance scout in the Battle of the Bulge, and in particular his witnessing of the bombing of Dresden, Germany whilst a prisoner of war, would inform much of his work. This event would also form the core of his most famous work, Slaughterhouse-Five, the book which would make him a millionaire. This acerbic 200-page book is what most people mean when they describe a work as "Vonnegutian" in scope.
Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed humanist and socialist (influenced by the style of Indiana's own Eugene V. Debs) and a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The novelist is known for works blending satire, black comedy and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973)
He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked as a journalist before joining the U.S. Army and serving in World War II.
After the war, he attended University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology and also worked as a police reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. He left Chicago to work in Schenectady, New York in public relations for General Electric. He attributed his unadorned writing style to his reporting work.
His experiences as an advance scout in the Battle of the Bulge, and in particular his witnessing of the bombing of Dresden, Germany whilst a prisoner of war, would inform much of his work. This event would also form the core of his most famous work, Slaughterhouse-Five, the book which would make him a millionaire. This acerbic 200-page book is what most people mean when they describe a work as "Vonnegutian" in scope.
Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed humanist and socialist (influenced by the style of Indiana's own Eugene V. Debs) and a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The novelist is known for works blending satire, black comedy and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973)
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 87 reviews
December 16, 2019
When I picked up Basic Training, it seemed familiar. I hadn't immediately realized I'd read Kurt Vonnegut's Basic Training four and a half years ago in the collection We Are What We Pretend To Be: The First and Last Works. I continued to read it anyway because I haven't ever regretted reading Vonnegut. While Basic Training didn't hit it out of the park, I still don't regret the (re)read. I'd probably only recommend this to Vonnegut fans looking for more insight into his work. It is accessible in a way that is not always the case for Vonnegut, but it doesn't resonate or have the prophetic quality that (after reading most of Vonnegut's novels) I've come to expect.
April 29, 2023
趩乇丕 賲賳 丕蹖賳賵 丿賵爻鬲 賳丿丕卮鬲賲 :( 賴蹖趩蹖 讴鬲丕亘 诏賴賵丕乇賴 诏乇亘賴 賳賲蹖卮賴...
March 28, 2012
I have very mixed feelings about this. Not about this novella, which I thought was interesting, thought-provoking, and deep -- especially considering it was only 22,000 words long -- but the fact that there is so much unpublished content from Vonnegut still waiting to be released.
When Vonnegut died back in 2007, I thought I only had a relatively small amount of his fiction left to read (having already read seven of his fourteen novels, and some of his short stories). When Armageddon in Retrospect was released in 2008, I erroneously thought it was the last of his unpublished works bundled together in a short story collection, and I scooped it right up and read it.
But in an about the release of Basic Training, it is made clear that there are "hundreds of other unpublished literary pieces in his estate, of which Basic Training was picked by Rosetta Books through Vonnegut's literary executor." I mean, hundreds? Just, wow.
On one hand, this seems to be awesome news for Vonnegut fans, as his estate should have enough of his work to publish posthumously for coming decades. But on the other hand, there must be a reason that Vonnegut chose not to publish these pieces during his lifetime, and I feel strange and voyeuristic reading words he may never have written for public consumption (although in this particular case, he did try to have this story published -- it was rejected by the Saturday Evening Post in the 40s).
If he really thought this remaining material was great, wouldn't he have published it during his life? Do we really want to remember his legacy from hundreds of scraps he didn't deem worthy of publication after his fame allowed him to publish anything he wrote? I don't have an answer to my own questions, other than the fact I bought and read this novella -- and at least in this case, the output was of high quality and definitely worthy of publication.
When Vonnegut died back in 2007, I thought I only had a relatively small amount of his fiction left to read (having already read seven of his fourteen novels, and some of his short stories). When Armageddon in Retrospect was released in 2008, I erroneously thought it was the last of his unpublished works bundled together in a short story collection, and I scooped it right up and read it.
But in an about the release of Basic Training, it is made clear that there are "hundreds of other unpublished literary pieces in his estate, of which Basic Training was picked by Rosetta Books through Vonnegut's literary executor." I mean, hundreds? Just, wow.
On one hand, this seems to be awesome news for Vonnegut fans, as his estate should have enough of his work to publish posthumously for coming decades. But on the other hand, there must be a reason that Vonnegut chose not to publish these pieces during his lifetime, and I feel strange and voyeuristic reading words he may never have written for public consumption (although in this particular case, he did try to have this story published -- it was rejected by the Saturday Evening Post in the 40s).
If he really thought this remaining material was great, wouldn't he have published it during his life? Do we really want to remember his legacy from hundreds of scraps he didn't deem worthy of publication after his fame allowed him to publish anything he wrote? I don't have an answer to my own questions, other than the fact I bought and read this novella -- and at least in this case, the output was of high quality and definitely worthy of publication.
December 12, 2022
丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賳爻亘鬲丕 噩丕賱亘蹖 亘賵丿. 賳讴鬲賴鈥屰� 丕氐賱蹖 丿乇 賲賵乇丿卮 丕蹖賳 亘賵丿 讴賴 鬲賯乇蹖亘丕 丿乇 丿賵 爻賵賲 丕亘鬲丿丕蹖蹖 亘賳馗乇賲 丕氐賱丕 卮亘蹖賴 亘丕賯蹖 丿丕爻鬲丕賳鈥屬囏й� 賵賳賴鈥屭ж� 賳亘賵丿 賵 禺蹖賱蹖 讴賲 賳卮丕賳賴鈥屬囏� 賵 爻乇賳禺鈥屬囏й屰� 賲蹖卮丿 鬲賵卮 丿蹖丿 讴賴 亘鬲賵賳蹖賲 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 乇賵 亘賴 讴丕乇賳丕賲賴鈥屰� 賳賵蹖爻賳丿賴 賲乇亘賵胤 讴賳蹖賲. 丿乇 賳賴丕蹖鬲 亘丕 倬蹖卮乇賮鬲 丿丕爻鬲丕賳 賴乇趩蹖 亘賴 倬丕蹖丕賳 賳夭丿蹖讴鈥屫� 賲蹖卮丿蹖賲 賵賳賴鈥屭ж� 亘蹖卮鬲乇 禺賵丿卮 乇賵 賳卮賵賳 賲蹖丿丕丿.
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April 29, 2021鉂� audiobook review
He searched his conscience in vain for a grain of remorse to justify the desolating punishment the general had promised. When you punish somebody, you take away from them what they want, he reasoned. All I had in the whole wide world was my music, so that's what I lost: everything.
A new old Vonnegut. I'm not sure you can go wrong with a novella by Kurt Vonnegut that's narrated by Colin Hanks! This is one of Vonnegut's unpublished stories, likely written in the 1940s, it seems. I haven't come across it before today and was in the mood for a Vonnegut story. It's a good novella, and follows a teenager named Haley Brandon when he comes to stay with a man who insists upon calling himself the General. I saw a few Salinger comparisons and I can see it. If you've read Salinger's shorts, I totally get the same vibe.
I recommend the audiobook for sure! Colin Hanks is a great narrator and really brings Vonnegut's words to life 鈾�
鈽� | 鈽�
He searched his conscience in vain for a grain of remorse to justify the desolating punishment the general had promised. When you punish somebody, you take away from them what they want, he reasoned. All I had in the whole wide world was my music, so that's what I lost: everything.
A new old Vonnegut. I'm not sure you can go wrong with a novella by Kurt Vonnegut that's narrated by Colin Hanks! This is one of Vonnegut's unpublished stories, likely written in the 1940s, it seems. I haven't come across it before today and was in the mood for a Vonnegut story. It's a good novella, and follows a teenager named Haley Brandon when he comes to stay with a man who insists upon calling himself the General. I saw a few Salinger comparisons and I can see it. If you've read Salinger's shorts, I totally get the same vibe.
I recommend the audiobook for sure! Colin Hanks is a great narrator and really brings Vonnegut's words to life 鈾�
鈽� | 鈽�
August 19, 2024
What is this? A Kurt Vonnegut tale with a happy ending? I'm not sure how I feel about that. Being serious, this is very different from his later works. I could feel him searching for his authorial voice. Nothing special on its own but it has good character development. It is interesting in the context of his overall body of work.
April 15, 2012
This is an early novella by Kurt Vonnegut that was rejected by the Saturday Evening Post in the 1940s while its author was still working for General Electric. Although it brings in a number of themes from his work, Basic Training strikes me almost as juvenilia. There is a single sentence at the beginning of Chapter II which reminds me of the later Vonnegut:
At 2 a.m., Central Standard Time, as reckoned by the parlor mantle clock in the home of Brigadier General William Cooley, retired, a light beam left the burning Sun. At 2:08 it glanced from the lip of a Moon crater, and a second later died on earth, in the staring eyes of Haley Brandon.Holy Tralfamadore! Unfortunately, the rest is rather bland, as if Vonnegut were trying to hold himself back to appeal to an audience of the sort he would probably never appeal to in the first place.
October 22, 2022
Picked this novella up in an Audible sale for a buck. It was worth it! This novella was written in the late 1940s but not published until 2012, 5 years after Vonnegut's death. This is not the ironic Vonnegut. It is an interesting coming of age story. Haley Brandon was the stepson of retired Colonel William Cody's sister. When Haley's parents died in an accident, the Colonel took Haley in. Haley was a pianist and was set to attend a music conservancy in the Fall. The Colonel told Haley pay for that but first Haley had to work the summer on the farm. The Colonel had two daughters - one a couple years younger than Haley and one a couple of years older. The Colonel was very controlling. Haley was put on a crew with the Colonel's favorite employee, a former soldier who was a bit disturbed but a great worker, and the younger daughter. Haley, the younger daughter, and the employee got along fine. Haley and the younger daughter get into trouble when they help the older daughter elope. Haley will not be going to the conservancy and the younger daughter will be going to a strict boarding school. Shortly after, Haley and the employee was tasked with getting in a field of bales early in the morning because of a coming storm. They managed to get all the bales in the field on the wagon, but it was an unstable height. The horses hauling the wagon were frightened as they drove into the yard and did what frightened horses do. The result was that the Colonel's beloved German car was pierced by the wagon tongue. Knowing the Colonel would be livid, the employee started running and Haley was soon following.
Haley has a rather horrifying experience while on the run. But he is tracked down by the police and returned to the farm, where when the Colonel is facing danger Haley acts. Unexpectedly, there is a happy ending.
It was a decent coming of age story but not of the style Vonnergut became renown for.
Haley has a rather horrifying experience while on the run. But he is tracked down by the police and returned to the farm, where when the Colonel is facing danger Haley acts. Unexpectedly, there is a happy ending.
It was a decent coming of age story but not of the style Vonnergut became renown for.
September 30, 2012
This was a posthumous novella release, from what I understand, only in ebook form. I picked it up for a dollar, or it may have even been free. It is an interesting book because it doesn't really follow the style, tropes, violence, humor, or even joy that most Vonnegut brings. It seems to take place in the past - but maybe it takes place in Vonnegut's contemporary America from when he was young. I can't really tell. I may even be coloring these opinions based solely on the book's cover photo. Regardless, it is not of the normal Vonnegutian variety. It is missing a great deal of his power, imagination, steam, and most importantly, his enthusiastic momentum that colors most of his work. It is almost bland, and has a great focus on plot and execution, but it is not Vonnegut. It is almost something that should go in a high school freshman's textbook, being somewhat reminiscent of John Knowles or something. The plot is very formulaic and while there is a little outstanding turns of phrase, there is nothing that one normally associates with Vonnegut. I will blame this on being early Vonnegut before he really started to find his voice. It was an alright read, but I am not sure much more than that. I did not leave reading it with the normal enthusiasm and metaphysical existentialist thoughts I normally expected from his work.
March 31, 2012
This is Vonnegut before he was "Kurt Vonnegut Jr. the writer of biting satire and wildly imaginative science-fiction-so-good-they-don't-call-it-science-fiction." The prose lacks Vonnegut's patent terseness and acerbic wit, but it's still darned fine writing. I didn't find the biting satire that the blurb writer claims, but I did find a great little coming of age story and a softer side of Vonnegut than what one encounters in his later works.
It's a fine novella, well worth the modest Kindle cost, and I recommend it highly, especially to Vonnegut fans eager to peer into the past and take a peek at the author's humble but very promising beginnings.
It's a fine novella, well worth the modest Kindle cost, and I recommend it highly, especially to Vonnegut fans eager to peer into the past and take a peek at the author's humble but very promising beginnings.
April 16, 2012
Reading this very early Vonnegut piece gives one hope: The writer who turned out this mediocre-at-best novella full of stock characters, cliched situations, and ridiculous motivations eventually became a national literary treasure. So even if your writing is borderline abyssmal right now, if you keep working at it, you could become great, too*!
_____________
* Prospects of becoming great will be greatly enhanced by witnessing a gruesome example of man's inhumanity to man firsthand. Also helpful: mental illness or a life of crime and/or debauchery.
_____________
* Prospects of becoming great will be greatly enhanced by witnessing a gruesome example of man's inhumanity to man firsthand. Also helpful: mental illness or a life of crime and/or debauchery.
June 30, 2012
A previously unpublished novella by Vonnegut. Basic Training is not nearly as absurdist or fanciful as his later novels. The plot/setting/characters are all structurally congruous and reasonable. Basic Training is basically a quaint bildungsroman that deals with issues of love, authoritarianism, family and heroism. It reminded me a lot of J.D. Salinger's and Carson McCuller's novellas, and wouldn't feel too overshadowed by those authors or out of place in the pages of Harpers, the New Yorker, or the Saturday Evening Post of the 1940s and 1950s.
June 15, 2012
Very quick read. Early Vonnegut missing the fantasy but not the humanity.
November 17, 2022
I once went to an event where Shepard Fairey showed some of his early work from art school, including a photorealistic sketch of a room in his apartment. I was blown away by how good it was - I鈥檇 assumed from his style as a professional that he was only capable of one thing, but he demonstrated that he had the skill to do other styles of art just as well, incredibly so. I鈥檝e had the same experience at art museums and listening to musicians perform other styles of music: before they developed their own style/sound, they had to learn to do what everyone else had done, and their talent was obvious in the way they showed that they COULD have continued down that road, but instead employed their skills toward something that might appear less impressive but was ultimately more original.
鈥淏asic Training鈥� is like that. It doesn鈥檛 read like Vonnegut, at least not the Vonnegut we know. There鈥檚 no postmodern references to the author's life, the story is told in chronological order, and the voice and characters are reminiscent of the Southern short story writers of the mid 20th Century (take your pick). While it starts out slow, the dynamic between the characters creates an oppressive tension that could rival anything that appeared in the publications Vonnegut was targeting. He shows that he could do their thing, too, and there鈥檚 enough groundwork laid here that this could have been a novel if he鈥檇 wanted it to be.
Unfortunately, after a few wild turns, the story degenerates and falls into a pointlessly 鈥渉appy鈥� ending where characters seem to want nothing, act without reason, and then get what society desires them to want, resulting in a novella that sets everything pleasant in the end without making any sort of statement about the world, as if the author gave up 2/3 of the way through.
But you can feel something bubbling underneath, a quizzical interrogation of society and the people in it that wouldn't be realized until Vonnegut matured. The author has something to say, and though he doesn't say it in this piece, it took the creation of works like this to bring him to where he eventually got. Ultimately, this story is worth reading because it's part of Vonnegut's growth, but without his involvement, it wouldn't be much. I was able to enjoy it, but was also disappointed because I know the author would eventually be capable of so much more, as soon as he stopped holding back and trying to please.
鈥淏asic Training鈥� is like that. It doesn鈥檛 read like Vonnegut, at least not the Vonnegut we know. There鈥檚 no postmodern references to the author's life, the story is told in chronological order, and the voice and characters are reminiscent of the Southern short story writers of the mid 20th Century (take your pick). While it starts out slow, the dynamic between the characters creates an oppressive tension that could rival anything that appeared in the publications Vonnegut was targeting. He shows that he could do their thing, too, and there鈥檚 enough groundwork laid here that this could have been a novel if he鈥檇 wanted it to be.
Unfortunately, after a few wild turns, the story degenerates and falls into a pointlessly 鈥渉appy鈥� ending where characters seem to want nothing, act without reason, and then get what society desires them to want, resulting in a novella that sets everything pleasant in the end without making any sort of statement about the world, as if the author gave up 2/3 of the way through.
But you can feel something bubbling underneath, a quizzical interrogation of society and the people in it that wouldn't be realized until Vonnegut matured. The author has something to say, and though he doesn't say it in this piece, it took the creation of works like this to bring him to where he eventually got. Ultimately, this story is worth reading because it's part of Vonnegut's growth, but without his involvement, it wouldn't be much. I was able to enjoy it, but was also disappointed because I know the author would eventually be capable of so much more, as soon as he stopped holding back and trying to please.
March 20, 2024
I read this from a twofer, a collection of two novellas by Kurt Vonnegut called We Are Who We Pretend To Be, which includes only his first and last works. For obvious reasons I thought this was kinda cool - you can juxtapose the author's growth from when the author first began writing and when the author stopped (due to death or retirement; in Vonnegut's case - death) and observe their literary evolution. This is the former, Vonnegut's first novella, written in the 1940s but was never published, rejected by at least two publications, about a teenager who's sent to live with family after his parents are killed. He was adopted by those two parents so the family he goes to stay with isn't technically his family by blood. In the house are his three teenaged "cousins" (Annie, Hope, and Kitty), a farmhand who lives on their property (Mr. Banghert), and their super strict father (his "uncle") who orders everyone to call him "The General".
Shenanigans ensue.
Now, the sleeve to this two-novella collection describes this story as satire - critiquing authoritarianism, gender relationships, the military mindset, parenthood, and "mid-century mythos of the family" (whatever that means). But here's the thing about satire - it has to be funny, it has to be humorous. Basic Training is not funny, it is not humorous, and nor does it even pretend or try to be. It's just obviously not designed or written to be satirical. At all. It's more realist than anything else - which is different than from what Vonnegut would later be known for.
Sure, "The General" might TECHNICALLY be authoritarian (only because he has a really strict schedule for his kids since he has a huge farm) but he nor his military mindset are satirized whatsoever. He's actually humanized. The writing makes it clear he loves his kids and his kids love him, accepts our lead as his own, and that he has a good heart. I'm also not sure how "gender relationships" or its "mid-century mythos of the family" are satirized either - I don't even know what it's talking about. Nothing seemed unusual by the time of the novella's standards or even today's standards. All felt pretty normal to me. The only thing I can think of is the lead teen has somewhat of a crush on Hope, one of his "cousins", but she shoots it down immediately and that whole thread is left alone after that.
Regardless of whatever style of literature Basic Training is, regardless of what the book sleeve says about it, it's a fine novella. It's not anything particularly special though.
Shenanigans ensue.
Now, the sleeve to this two-novella collection describes this story as satire - critiquing authoritarianism, gender relationships, the military mindset, parenthood, and "mid-century mythos of the family" (whatever that means). But here's the thing about satire - it has to be funny, it has to be humorous. Basic Training is not funny, it is not humorous, and nor does it even pretend or try to be. It's just obviously not designed or written to be satirical. At all. It's more realist than anything else - which is different than from what Vonnegut would later be known for.
Sure, "The General" might TECHNICALLY be authoritarian (only because he has a really strict schedule for his kids since he has a huge farm) but he nor his military mindset are satirized whatsoever. He's actually humanized. The writing makes it clear he loves his kids and his kids love him, accepts our lead as his own, and that he has a good heart. I'm also not sure how "gender relationships" or its "mid-century mythos of the family" are satirized either - I don't even know what it's talking about. Nothing seemed unusual by the time of the novella's standards or even today's standards. All felt pretty normal to me. The only thing I can think of is the lead teen has somewhat of a crush on Hope, one of his "cousins", but she shoots it down immediately and that whole thread is left alone after that.
Regardless of whatever style of literature Basic Training is, regardless of what the book sleeve says about it, it's a fine novella. It's not anything particularly special though.
April 24, 2020
This is a novella about a young man, Haley, who moves to a farm with his uncle, The General, and his cousins after being orphaned.
I have never read Kurt Vonnegut before so didn't know what to expect. This novella seemed to lack a proper storyline, the ending was uninspiring. I have read of Vonnegut's wit, but this seemed to be absent (or I missed it/didn't understand it).
On looking at other reviews and ratings, I seemed to be in the minority. This audiobook passed 2 hours of baking, but I wish I had listened to something else.
I have never read Kurt Vonnegut before so didn't know what to expect. This novella seemed to lack a proper storyline, the ending was uninspiring. I have read of Vonnegut's wit, but this seemed to be absent (or I missed it/didn't understand it).
On looking at other reviews and ratings, I seemed to be in the minority. This audiobook passed 2 hours of baking, but I wish I had listened to something else.
October 1, 2018
So glad I ran across this book in a sale. Vonnegut is just fabulous at capturing the vagaries of life. From the title I was expecting more of a military story, but that is a mere sideline through vivid and unrelenting memories.
The only basic training in this novella is the training most of us experience in getting the naivete knocked out of us.
If you love Vonnegut, you will certainly enjoy this.
The only basic training in this novella is the training most of us experience in getting the naivete knocked out of us.
If you love Vonnegut, you will certainly enjoy this.
August 3, 2022
I listened to this book via Audible.
Basic Training is a short story written in Vonnegut's unique style, albeit with a much less fantastic premise than many of his other works. It feels like a very brief coming of age tale, and while the keyword there is brief, it still makes an impact with its climax and conclusion. If you're interested in a quick piece of Vonnegut fiction, you should definitely give it a read!
Basic Training is a short story written in Vonnegut's unique style, albeit with a much less fantastic premise than many of his other works. It feels like a very brief coming of age tale, and while the keyword there is brief, it still makes an impact with its climax and conclusion. If you're interested in a quick piece of Vonnegut fiction, you should definitely give it a read!
May 11, 2025
I have enjoyed everything I have read of Vonnegut, this story included, which was his very first published novella. It features Haley, a recently orphaned teenager sent to live on a farm run by The General - his adoptive uncle who oversees his family, home and business as he did his military command. It isn鈥檛 as absurd or funny or mature as Vonnegut鈥檚 classic works, but it still paints a picture of the banalities and small heroisms of the American family.
November 25, 2017
Beautiful early Vonnegut. The before commercialized Vonnegut; who I like and enjoy. Expand your grasp beyond the early when reading Basic Training to more than a "story", to a life lesson formative, experienced and learned. Interspectivly touching a person's soul.
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December 22, 2019This is an early novella by Kurt Vonnegut that was rejected by the Saturday Evening Post in the 1940s while its author was still working for General Electric. Although it brings in a number of themes from his work, Basic Training strikes me almost as juvenilia.
July 9, 2020
Every now and then you have to go back and read a Vonnegut just to remind yourself what a genius this man was. Any book he writes is worthwhile and this short story is both engaging and full of characters that bounce off each other in a spiral of intensity. Wonderful.
August 2, 2022
I've never read a book of Vonnegut's that wasn't written and that odd, wonderful style of his. Still, this succinct tale was satisfying and clever.
December 24, 2022
亘毓丿 丕夭 爻丕賱鈥屬囏� 丿賵亘丕乇賴 讴鬲丕亘蹖 丕夭 賵賳賴鈥屭ж� 禺賵賳丿賲. 賵賱蹖 亘賴 夭蹖亘丕蹖蹖 讴鬲丕亘鈥屬囏й� 賯丿蹖賲蹖 讴賴 禺賵丕賳丿賲 賳亘賵丿.
June 26, 2024
Didn鈥檛 care for it. Came in from such high reviews of Vonnegut. Cousin-fucking is weird regardless of circumstance.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
September 15, 2024
A really lovely short story from Vonnegut. It slowly unfolds and then hits you and keeps hitting you. Can you come of age in under 100 pages? In this little story you can.
September 21, 2017
Interesting as an early Vonnegut story, but ultimately just not that interesting.
April 14, 2022
Not to sound weird, but I met a guy in a bathroom once. It had one of those paper towel dispensers that you pump to get more of the roll and I, partly because it was annoying to hear people pump the ever-loving hell out of these dispensers and partly because I'm obsessed with efficiency, had been trying to limit the amount of paper towel I would dispense for myself.
I washed my hands and pumped maybe three times and this guy comes up behind me and he gets his paper towel in two pumps.
I told him that I thought I was the only one that tried not to use that much paper towel and he very quickly said that he guesses he just loves the environment more than me.
And right away I knew I had made a great friend. He was quick and super clever. I'm not bad, but I take a little while and this dude would always beat me to the punch but never in a way that was frustrating. It was more like I was impressed at how smart and fast this guy was.
We've been friends for a long time and he recommended that I read more Vonnegut and I'm happy to oblige.
And, just like my friend, I like Vonnegut's intellect and cleverness and I always feel just a bit behind the curve, but always in a way that's still enjoyable.
I liked this story. I'm SURE it means something that I'm not picking up on, but that doesn't diminish my good time. I also don't think I'm alone in this regard. Lots of reviewers say it's thought-provoking and Salinger-like (which I guess I can see - Vonnegut and Salinger seem like they would have been... not friends, but maybe pen pals) but they don't express what they think the book's about, probably for fear of being wrong.
I'll just be honest and say I don't know. Maybe it's an allegory for how just because someone's in a position of authority it doesn't mean they're automatically the smartest/strongest/bravest in the room and that the small and weak are too often dismissed.
It's good. I definitely want to read more.
I washed my hands and pumped maybe three times and this guy comes up behind me and he gets his paper towel in two pumps.
I told him that I thought I was the only one that tried not to use that much paper towel and he very quickly said that he guesses he just loves the environment more than me.
And right away I knew I had made a great friend. He was quick and super clever. I'm not bad, but I take a little while and this dude would always beat me to the punch but never in a way that was frustrating. It was more like I was impressed at how smart and fast this guy was.
We've been friends for a long time and he recommended that I read more Vonnegut and I'm happy to oblige.
And, just like my friend, I like Vonnegut's intellect and cleverness and I always feel just a bit behind the curve, but always in a way that's still enjoyable.
I liked this story. I'm SURE it means something that I'm not picking up on, but that doesn't diminish my good time. I also don't think I'm alone in this regard. Lots of reviewers say it's thought-provoking and Salinger-like (which I guess I can see - Vonnegut and Salinger seem like they would have been... not friends, but maybe pen pals) but they don't express what they think the book's about, probably for fear of being wrong.
I'll just be honest and say I don't know. Maybe it's an allegory for how just because someone's in a position of authority it doesn't mean they're automatically the smartest/strongest/bravest in the room and that the small and weak are too often dismissed.
It's good. I definitely want to read more.
May 12, 2013
Basic Training was supposedly written "in the late 1940s", which means it predates the short stories in Bagombo Snuff Box by a few years, Sirens of Titan by 10, and Slaughterhouse-Five by 20. And yeah, it shows. If you know what to look for, there are some things here that clue you in that Vonnegut wrote this story of a sensitive young man sent to live on a farm with his cousins and their father The General; the powerless boy hero tossed about by life, the casual cruelty of war (The General, all boisterous pride and blind adherence to The Rules, is definitely a sketch for many later Vonnegut characters)... Ultimately, though, it's really a rather weak affair; Vonnegut's prose at this stage is often painfully clich茅d, as is the story itself, with an ending depending entirely on both the characters and the reader having forgotten something that was established only 10-odd pages earlier. Above all, what's missing is Vonnegut's irony; at this point (as readers of Bagombo Snuff Box already know) he hadn't yet figured out that stories can wink at the reader, that a moral can be subverted, that "And then they lived happily ever after" is, in most cases, a horrible ending. He'd get that a few years later, and no doubt that's one of the reasons he shoved Basic Training back in the drawer and never revisited it.
April 1, 2012
This is a "long-lost" novella by Kurt Vonnegut. He wrote it in the late 1940's, and it was rejected by several magazines. He put it aside and never did anything else with it. It was published in March, almost five years after his death. It's the story of a teenaged boy, orphaned by a car accident, who comes to live with his uncle and cousins on a farm. Interestingly enough, nearly twenty years after he wrote Basic Training, Vonnegut's sister and her husband died within days of each other, and Vonnegut took his three nephews in and raised them with his own, three children. Maybe he considered the irony, and that's why he never did anything with the novella. However, his family, I suppose, decided it made no difference after he was gone and had it published on Amazon.
It's a good read, with pathos and absurdity and a redeeming ending. I highly recommend it.
It's a good read, with pathos and absurdity and a redeeming ending. I highly recommend it.
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