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丕爻賱倬 丕爻鬲蹖讴 蹖丕 鬲賳賴丕蹖蹖 賴乇诏夭
Manhattan has become the Island of Death.
The former President of the United States stands barefoot in a purple toga around a cooking fire in the lobby of the Empire State Building.
He is Dr Wilbur Daffodil-II Swain and Slapstick or Lonesome No More! is his story 鈥� one of monstrous twins, orgies, revenge, golf, utopian schemes, and very little tooth brushing. In this post-apocalyptic black comedy 鈥� dedicated to Laurel and Hardy 鈥� Vonnegut is at his most hilarious, grotesque, and personal.
The former President of the United States stands barefoot in a purple toga around a cooking fire in the lobby of the Empire State Building.
He is Dr Wilbur Daffodil-II Swain and Slapstick or Lonesome No More! is his story 鈥� one of monstrous twins, orgies, revenge, golf, utopian schemes, and very little tooth brushing. In this post-apocalyptic black comedy 鈥� dedicated to Laurel and Hardy 鈥� Vonnegut is at his most hilarious, grotesque, and personal.
200 pages
First published January 1, 1976
787 people are currently reading
21.4k people want to read
About the author
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
651听books35.9k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 2,273 reviews
March 8, 2020
鈥淚f you can do no good, at least do no harm.鈥�
鈥淟ove is where you find it. I think it is foolish to go around looking for it, and I think it can be poisonous. I wish that people who are conventionally supposed to love each other would say to each other, when they fight, 'Please 鈥� a little less love, and a little more common decency'.鈥�
鈥淲hat does seem important? Bargaining in good faith with destiny.鈥�
Kurt Vonnegut's Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! is a sort of autobiography within an autobiography. In the prologue, Vonnegut, the author, meditates on the death of his sister, Alice, on loneliness and the assertion that the novel Slapstick itself is autobiographical. Slapstick then is written by the former last president of the United States, Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, from his nearly empty offices in the Empire State Building. It is a post-apocalyptic world. The U.S government has collapsed and much of humanity has been ravaged by plagues known as the green death (caused by the fatal inhalation of Chinese who have miniaturized themselves) and the Albanian flu.
Swain writes about his life, and the connection to his twin sister, Eliza, without whom neither one is really whole. They are viewed as simpletons; however, together they are brilliant and wildly creative. Their separation at age 15 signals the destruction of paradise. Apart, the twins refer to their simpleton selves as Betty and Bobby Brown. Even years later, Eliza asks Wilbur,"How could anybody love Bobby Brown?" Hi ho!
Though Vonnegut gave it a grade of 'D,' I really enjoyed Slapstick! Unlike some other works by Vonnegut, it was immediately engaging, and of course, fun and wildly irreverent! 4.25 stars.
Again, and as sort of a postscript, I wonder about Vonnegut's perception of Wyoming. "If you ever go to Wyoming..." This reference occurs with respect to a new scheme to create artificial families Swain is told he'd have connections, wouldn't be lonesome. Otherwise, and in so much of his other work, Wyoming exists on the edge of crazy!
鈥淚n case nobody has told you," she said, "this is the United States of America, where nobody has a right to rely on anybody else--where everybody learns to make his or her own way.鈥�
鈥淔脣DOR Mikhailovich Dostoevski, the
Russian novelist, said one time that, "One sacred memory from childhood is perhaps the best education." I can think of another quickie education for a child, which, in its way, is almost as salutary: Meeting a human being who is tremendously respected by the adult world, and realizing that that person is actually a malicious lunatic.鈥�
鈥淟ove is where you find it. I think it is foolish to go around looking for it, and I think it can be poisonous. I wish that people who are conventionally supposed to love each other would say to each other, when they fight, 'Please 鈥� a little less love, and a little more common decency'.鈥�
鈥淲hat does seem important? Bargaining in good faith with destiny.鈥�
Kurt Vonnegut's Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! is a sort of autobiography within an autobiography. In the prologue, Vonnegut, the author, meditates on the death of his sister, Alice, on loneliness and the assertion that the novel Slapstick itself is autobiographical. Slapstick then is written by the former last president of the United States, Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, from his nearly empty offices in the Empire State Building. It is a post-apocalyptic world. The U.S government has collapsed and much of humanity has been ravaged by plagues known as the green death (caused by the fatal inhalation of Chinese who have miniaturized themselves) and the Albanian flu.
Swain writes about his life, and the connection to his twin sister, Eliza, without whom neither one is really whole. They are viewed as simpletons; however, together they are brilliant and wildly creative. Their separation at age 15 signals the destruction of paradise. Apart, the twins refer to their simpleton selves as Betty and Bobby Brown. Even years later, Eliza asks Wilbur,"How could anybody love Bobby Brown?" Hi ho!
Though Vonnegut gave it a grade of 'D,' I really enjoyed Slapstick! Unlike some other works by Vonnegut, it was immediately engaging, and of course, fun and wildly irreverent! 4.25 stars.
Again, and as sort of a postscript, I wonder about Vonnegut's perception of Wyoming. "If you ever go to Wyoming..." This reference occurs with respect to a new scheme to create artificial families Swain is told he'd have connections, wouldn't be lonesome. Otherwise, and in so much of his other work, Wyoming exists on the edge of crazy!
鈥淚n case nobody has told you," she said, "this is the United States of America, where nobody has a right to rely on anybody else--where everybody learns to make his or her own way.鈥�
鈥淔脣DOR Mikhailovich Dostoevski, the
Russian novelist, said one time that, "One sacred memory from childhood is perhaps the best education." I can think of another quickie education for a child, which, in its way, is almost as salutary: Meeting a human being who is tremendously respected by the adult world, and realizing that that person is actually a malicious lunatic.鈥�
November 16, 2016
鈥淎nd how did we
then face the odds,
of man's rude slapstick,
yes, and God's?
Quite at home and unafraid,
Thank-you,
in a game
our dreams remade.鈥�
鈥� Kurt Vonnegut, Slapstick, or Lonesome No More!
My 15-ear-old son broke the screen on his iPhone 6s. I'm letting him buy down the debt (to me) by reading 6 Vonnegut novels before the end of the year. Every book he reads, drops his big OWE down by $10, upto $60. He is still on the hook for the other $80. This is what happens when daddy is an absurdist, but rules like a fascist King. Hi ho.
So, I've decided to read a lot of the Vonnegut novels he's going to be reading before the end of the year too. It has been 30 years since I went on a huge Vonnegut tear. It seems in an era of Donald Trump I'm going to need as many absurdist tools on my belt as possible. What better way than a book about loneliness, incest (perhaps not, or technically yes, but also not), disease, the destruction of America, and the Church of Jesus Christ the Kidnapped.
There are other, stronger Vonneguts where I could have started, but I'm also trying to go through my Library of America Vonnegut: . Plus, it is hard to avoid a book that uses the phrase 鈥淲hy don't you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut? Why don't you take a flying fuck at the mooooooooooooon?鈥� often and with literary abandon.
As far as the stars, the book itself probably only warrants a Vonnegut 3-star (except for the fact that the autobiographical introduction is so good, I'm tossing in another star because, well, I can).
then face the odds,
of man's rude slapstick,
yes, and God's?
Quite at home and unafraid,
Thank-you,
in a game
our dreams remade.鈥�
鈥� Kurt Vonnegut, Slapstick, or Lonesome No More!
My 15-ear-old son broke the screen on his iPhone 6s. I'm letting him buy down the debt (to me) by reading 6 Vonnegut novels before the end of the year. Every book he reads, drops his big OWE down by $10, upto $60. He is still on the hook for the other $80. This is what happens when daddy is an absurdist, but rules like a fascist King. Hi ho.
So, I've decided to read a lot of the Vonnegut novels he's going to be reading before the end of the year too. It has been 30 years since I went on a huge Vonnegut tear. It seems in an era of Donald Trump I'm going to need as many absurdist tools on my belt as possible. What better way than a book about loneliness, incest (perhaps not, or technically yes, but also not), disease, the destruction of America, and the Church of Jesus Christ the Kidnapped.
There are other, stronger Vonneguts where I could have started, but I'm also trying to go through my Library of America Vonnegut: . Plus, it is hard to avoid a book that uses the phrase 鈥淲hy don't you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut? Why don't you take a flying fuck at the mooooooooooooon?鈥� often and with literary abandon.
As far as the stars, the book itself probably only warrants a Vonnegut 3-star (except for the fact that the autobiographical introduction is so good, I'm tossing in another star because, well, I can).
October 14, 2019
Vonnegut's most farcical, most absurd, but also one of the more scathing satires.
Here Vonnegut takes on universalism, and totalitarianism, but on a grander scale than he allowed in ; but also this is more surreal. His genius, though, as seen in other novels, is to creatively intersperse pockets of stark realism to accentuate and to highlight the circus like theme.
Vonnegut also uses elements of grotesque to further illustrate his none too subtle rebuke of egalitarianism. This is thought provoking, though, in terms of his over the top humanism and decidedly liberal politics. A good read, and a must read for a Vonnegut fan. A new reader to his canon would be better advised to start with or .
2019 reread
Hi Ho!
Lyn Geranium 27 here, reporting on Kurt Vonnegut鈥檚 ninth novel, first published in 1974.
When I first read this back in the olden days of the late 80s, I didn鈥檛 like it so much. At the time I had no exposure of and a dim understanding of absurdist humor. After college introduced me to Eugene Ionescu, Albert Camus and Samuel Beckett, I had a little better idea about how much fun it could be, and through the microscope of hyperbole, how important as a literary device it could be.
Vonnegut tells this outrageous tale of the last President of the United States, a two-meter-tall, Neanderthal genius twin who presided over the fizzled out end of western civilization. What follows is disease, famine and decentralized fiefdoms.
But civilization is not over, the Chinese have learned, among a great many things, to go full Ant-Man and reduce their size to better utilize lessened resources.
What stands out the most to me was Vonnegut鈥檚 ideas, earlier hinted at in Cat鈥檚 Cradle and Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons, about how lonesome we are and what we desperately need are extended families as in primitive societies.
Our hero Wilbur introduces the law that everyone will replace their middle name with a randomly generated noun and number combination. An example is Daffodill 11, or Uranium 8. This then, would become the person鈥檚 family, and they could support each other or not, just like today. If you don鈥檛 want to deal with a non-family member, Wilbur invites us to say this to them:
鈥淵ou can take a flying f*** at a rolling doughnut, you can take a flying f*** at the Moooooooon!鈥�
And so on.
Vonnegut describes to us a world, through absurdist exaggeration, a world of desperate individuals who want connection, and a necessary ideal toward fixing such a calamity in the example of the little Chinese.
Too much fun!
Hi Ho!
Here Vonnegut takes on universalism, and totalitarianism, but on a grander scale than he allowed in ; but also this is more surreal. His genius, though, as seen in other novels, is to creatively intersperse pockets of stark realism to accentuate and to highlight the circus like theme.
Vonnegut also uses elements of grotesque to further illustrate his none too subtle rebuke of egalitarianism. This is thought provoking, though, in terms of his over the top humanism and decidedly liberal politics. A good read, and a must read for a Vonnegut fan. A new reader to his canon would be better advised to start with or .
2019 reread
Hi Ho!
Lyn Geranium 27 here, reporting on Kurt Vonnegut鈥檚 ninth novel, first published in 1974.
When I first read this back in the olden days of the late 80s, I didn鈥檛 like it so much. At the time I had no exposure of and a dim understanding of absurdist humor. After college introduced me to Eugene Ionescu, Albert Camus and Samuel Beckett, I had a little better idea about how much fun it could be, and through the microscope of hyperbole, how important as a literary device it could be.
Vonnegut tells this outrageous tale of the last President of the United States, a two-meter-tall, Neanderthal genius twin who presided over the fizzled out end of western civilization. What follows is disease, famine and decentralized fiefdoms.
But civilization is not over, the Chinese have learned, among a great many things, to go full Ant-Man and reduce their size to better utilize lessened resources.
What stands out the most to me was Vonnegut鈥檚 ideas, earlier hinted at in Cat鈥檚 Cradle and Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons, about how lonesome we are and what we desperately need are extended families as in primitive societies.
Our hero Wilbur introduces the law that everyone will replace their middle name with a randomly generated noun and number combination. An example is Daffodill 11, or Uranium 8. This then, would become the person鈥檚 family, and they could support each other or not, just like today. If you don鈥檛 want to deal with a non-family member, Wilbur invites us to say this to them:
鈥淵ou can take a flying f*** at a rolling doughnut, you can take a flying f*** at the Moooooooon!鈥�
And so on.
Vonnegut describes to us a world, through absurdist exaggeration, a world of desperate individuals who want connection, and a necessary ideal toward fixing such a calamity in the example of the little Chinese.
Too much fun!
Hi Ho!
December 19, 2022
SECOND READING, 2022: Nothing much to add. Kurt's misgivings about the L-word be damned: I love this book.
* * * * *
ORIGINAL REVIEW, EARLY 2020
(appx 7 weeks before stay at home orders began)
Slapstick begins with a prologue that I won't hesitate to rank among Vonnegut's absolute best writing. It is honest, it is tenderhearted, it is sad and funny and bittersweet. It also provides an explicit key to deciphering the novel that follows, which is unusual. In another author's hands such a trick might seem overeager and embarassing. But Vonnegut does as he always does and makes the silly and embarrassing work gracefully towards his purposes鈥攑resenting his thoughts so concisely and so cheerily that it is impossible not to feel a groundswell of emotion and a firm, immediate rapport. Vonnegut knew what it was to be human, with all the messy ugly parts and all the beautiful triumphant parts and all the messy parts that become beautiful because they are real and essential to us.
As his 8th novel out of 14, I guess we'd place this one into his "middle era" and Slapstick is written in the staccato style I most often associate with Vonnegut's later books. Assuming his aim was to provide plenty of places to stop for reflection along the way, I took the opportunity to read this book slowly: a dozen pages a day or so, with lots of space between each of those pages to feel, to think about what made me feel that way, and then to feel again what thinking about feeling that way made me feel. It was pleasant, but potent.
This is Vonnegut, so there are quotable "zingers" all along the way (as usual). But it's also an exercise in actively caring (again as usual). Truth be told I need all the gentle reminders I can get to be a kind and decent person in this world we occupy. Vonnegut doles those reminders out liberally, and with more explicit comedy here than I recall in his other works.
I do have some criticism for this book, but when I go to write it down it seems trivial in comparison with the big feelings that it stirred up in me. About the most severe thing I can bring myself to say is this: it's not Vonnegut's strongest novel and it is cruder than his greatest hits.
But still, emphatically: 5 stars out of 5. There's a clich茅 frequently passed around parenting circles: "Find Your Tribe." For years I've dismissed it as empty pablum, but Vonnegut just made it real to me.
* * * * *
ORIGINAL REVIEW, EARLY 2020
(appx 7 weeks before stay at home orders began)
Slapstick begins with a prologue that I won't hesitate to rank among Vonnegut's absolute best writing. It is honest, it is tenderhearted, it is sad and funny and bittersweet. It also provides an explicit key to deciphering the novel that follows, which is unusual. In another author's hands such a trick might seem overeager and embarassing. But Vonnegut does as he always does and makes the silly and embarrassing work gracefully towards his purposes鈥攑resenting his thoughts so concisely and so cheerily that it is impossible not to feel a groundswell of emotion and a firm, immediate rapport. Vonnegut knew what it was to be human, with all the messy ugly parts and all the beautiful triumphant parts and all the messy parts that become beautiful because they are real and essential to us.
As his 8th novel out of 14, I guess we'd place this one into his "middle era" and Slapstick is written in the staccato style I most often associate with Vonnegut's later books. Assuming his aim was to provide plenty of places to stop for reflection along the way, I took the opportunity to read this book slowly: a dozen pages a day or so, with lots of space between each of those pages to feel, to think about what made me feel that way, and then to feel again what thinking about feeling that way made me feel. It was pleasant, but potent.
This is Vonnegut, so there are quotable "zingers" all along the way (as usual). But it's also an exercise in actively caring (again as usual). Truth be told I need all the gentle reminders I can get to be a kind and decent person in this world we occupy. Vonnegut doles those reminders out liberally, and with more explicit comedy here than I recall in his other works.
I do have some criticism for this book, but when I go to write it down it seems trivial in comparison with the big feelings that it stirred up in me. About the most severe thing I can bring myself to say is this: it's not Vonnegut's strongest novel and it is cruder than his greatest hits.
But still, emphatically: 5 stars out of 5. There's a clich茅 frequently passed around parenting circles: "Find Your Tribe." For years I've dismissed it as empty pablum, but Vonnegut just made it real to me.
April 24, 2025
I don't usually read a book's preface, but I started with the preface in this one and it is gorgeous.
鈥⑩赌⑩赌�
It's Angela Carter's Wise Children meets A Series of Unfortunate Events meets something like Muriel Spark's Symposium.
鈥⑩赌⑩赌�
It also solves that ancient mystery of how the Pyramids came to be built so read it for that if for no other reason.
鈥⑩赌⑩赌�
And it has jokes:
Q: Why is cream so much more expensive than milk?
A: Because the cows hate to squat on the little bottles.鈥�
鈥⑩赌⑩赌�
Oh, and it sums up why I hate the phrase 'I love you.' And I quote: 鈥淚t鈥檚 as though you were pointing a gun at my head[...]It鈥檚 just a way of getting somebody to say something they probably don鈥檛 mean. What else can I say, or anybody say, but, 鈥業 love you, too鈥�?鈥�
鈥⑩赌⑩赌�
Graham Greene apparently called Vonnegut "one of the best living American writers." They're both dead now, but I guess I agree.
鈥⑩赌⑩赌�
All books in my library are alternately titled Lonesome No More
Hi ho.
鈥⑩赌⑩赌�
It's Angela Carter's Wise Children meets A Series of Unfortunate Events meets something like Muriel Spark's Symposium.
鈥⑩赌⑩赌�
It also solves that ancient mystery of how the Pyramids came to be built so read it for that if for no other reason.
鈥⑩赌⑩赌�
And it has jokes:
Q: Why is cream so much more expensive than milk?
A: Because the cows hate to squat on the little bottles.鈥�
鈥⑩赌⑩赌�
Oh, and it sums up why I hate the phrase 'I love you.' And I quote: 鈥淚t鈥檚 as though you were pointing a gun at my head[...]It鈥檚 just a way of getting somebody to say something they probably don鈥檛 mean. What else can I say, or anybody say, but, 鈥業 love you, too鈥�?鈥�
鈥⑩赌⑩赌�
Graham Greene apparently called Vonnegut "one of the best living American writers." They're both dead now, but I guess I agree.
鈥⑩赌⑩赌�
All books in my library are alternately titled Lonesome No More
Hi ho.
October 23, 2018
Loneliness and isolation鈥� What can they do to one鈥檚 destiny? What does it mean to be different from the others?
Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! is post-apocalyptic burlesque鈥� Everything in the novel is turned inside out and even the apocalypse is ludicrously absurd.
The old protagonist writes a preposterous story of his long life but, as usual, hiding behind the fa莽ade of fun Kurt Vonnegut explores the serious problems existing in the modern society.
鈥淏ear ye one another鈥檚 burdens鈥︹€� Galatians 6:2 This remedy for loneliness is known since the ancient times.
We were aware of all the comedy in this. But, as brilliant as we were when we put our heads together, we did not guess until we were fifteen that we were also in the midst of a tragedy. We thought that ugliness was simply amusing to people in the outside world. We did not realize that we could actually nauseate strangers who came upon us unexpectedly.
Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! is post-apocalyptic burlesque鈥� Everything in the novel is turned inside out and even the apocalypse is ludicrously absurd.
The old protagonist writes a preposterous story of his long life but, as usual, hiding behind the fa莽ade of fun Kurt Vonnegut explores the serious problems existing in the modern society.
Yes, and I write now with a palsied hand and an aching head, for I drank much too much at my birthday party last night.
Vera Chipmunk-5 Zappa arrived encrusted with diamonds, borne through the ailanthus forest in a sedan chair, accompanied by an entourage of fourteen slaves. She brought me wine and beer, which made me drunk. But her most intoxicating gifts were a thousand candles she and her slaves had made in a colonial candle mold. We fitted them into the empty mouths of my thousand candlesticks, and deployed them over the lobby floor.
Then we lit them all.
Standing among all those tiny, wavering lights, I felt as though I were God, up to my knees in the Milky Way.
鈥淏ear ye one another鈥檚 burdens鈥︹€� Galatians 6:2 This remedy for loneliness is known since the ancient times.
December 24, 2023
Pure delight and perfect Vonnegut! This is one of my favorites of his and a wonderful book to end the year (unless I put my new game aside and get some reading done in the next week).
April 2, 2024
3.5 stars
short review for busy readers: a typical socially scathing Vonnegut, but probably his most personal work as it was written right after his sister died. The first part is slow and somewhat laboured, but the second is profound. Lots of good quotes and a few laugh-out-loud situations.
in detail:
How important is family in modern western cultures? Especially in the American culture which prides itself on newness, independence and mobility?
Answer: by and large, not very.
We live thousands of miles away from our relatives or where we grew up. We do as we want and expect not to be given a moment's grief for it. We may not even come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas or ever visit grandma. HA! That's how independent and our own people we are!
And loneliness - what Vonnegut refers to as "American Loneliness"- disconnection and having no one to turn to eats us alive. Many of us lack a strong social structure, a community. We're a nation of lone wolves attempting to rear young without a pack. (Esp at that period in time)
In answer to this problem, Vonnegut has his protag, The US President, create vast extended families based on a randomly assigned middle name. Are you an Orchid-5, a Bumblebee-27 or a Hematite-11? Then you now have at least 10,000 family member scattered all over the place!
Instant connection! Lonesome No More!
Do you have to like all these people? Of course not. Do you do like all your blood relatives? Of course not. Same diff. Only now, you have people and groups you can go to if you need help. You have your own magazine and social clubs and legal representation. You can organise parties and festivals and the biggest family reunions the world has ever seen.
You will have a social net, a community, a pack. You will have friends and connection in every city and village, if you want them.
What a fabulous idea. And how like Vonnegut to envision a socially interesting (and probably viable) solution to one of the ills of American culture.
But his ruminations come back to his sister, who had just passed away when he wrote this novel. How important was their connection? Or his connection to anyone in his own family? I imagine Vonnegut felt as comforted by the idea of these vast families, most of whom you'd never meet but are there when you need them, as I do.
Not his best, but touching and very readable. And who can resist the description of Manhattan as "Skyscraper National Park"?
short review for busy readers: a typical socially scathing Vonnegut, but probably his most personal work as it was written right after his sister died. The first part is slow and somewhat laboured, but the second is profound. Lots of good quotes and a few laugh-out-loud situations.
in detail:
How important is family in modern western cultures? Especially in the American culture which prides itself on newness, independence and mobility?
Answer: by and large, not very.
We live thousands of miles away from our relatives or where we grew up. We do as we want and expect not to be given a moment's grief for it. We may not even come home for Thanksgiving or Christmas or ever visit grandma. HA! That's how independent and our own people we are!
And loneliness - what Vonnegut refers to as "American Loneliness"- disconnection and having no one to turn to eats us alive. Many of us lack a strong social structure, a community. We're a nation of lone wolves attempting to rear young without a pack. (Esp at that period in time)
In answer to this problem, Vonnegut has his protag, The US President, create vast extended families based on a randomly assigned middle name. Are you an Orchid-5, a Bumblebee-27 or a Hematite-11? Then you now have at least 10,000 family member scattered all over the place!
Instant connection! Lonesome No More!
Do you have to like all these people? Of course not. Do you do like all your blood relatives? Of course not. Same diff. Only now, you have people and groups you can go to if you need help. You have your own magazine and social clubs and legal representation. You can organise parties and festivals and the biggest family reunions the world has ever seen.
You will have a social net, a community, a pack. You will have friends and connection in every city and village, if you want them.
What a fabulous idea. And how like Vonnegut to envision a socially interesting (and probably viable) solution to one of the ills of American culture.
But his ruminations come back to his sister, who had just passed away when he wrote this novel. How important was their connection? Or his connection to anyone in his own family? I imagine Vonnegut felt as comforted by the idea of these vast families, most of whom you'd never meet but are there when you need them, as I do.
Not his best, but touching and very readable. And who can resist the description of Manhattan as "Skyscraper National Park"?
December 30, 2013
Hmmm deformed, incestuous fraternal twins become geniuses when they touch their heads together. One is the last President of the United States of America. Ridiculous, yes? No. This is Vonnegut! I liked this one. I like all Vonnegut actually. I'm very biased, don't listen to me. Hi ho.
September 20, 2007
At this point I've gotten fairly familiar with Kurt Vonnegut's tone and flavor. The sense of universalism and equality consistently sound as often as his humor and irony rings.
This books reads as a perversion of all four themes.
To me.
Usually Vonnegut's works seem to read with some underlying sense that no matter how bizarre everything seems, no matter how depressing or how inspiring a situation seems, there's always a punchline, and that punchline brings you back to reality, forcing the reader to realize that we're all human. We're all prone to make mistakes just as often as we succeeed. We're all prone to die just as sure as we're prone to live. We're all prone for 15 minutes of fame surrounded by an average of 76.4 years of mundaneness.
But that doesn't ring the same for Slapstick. The introduction gives you an immediate idea of why Vonnegut steps out of his comfort zone on this one.
If the introduction reads true, and there's no guarantee that reality and honesty aren't being blurred in any of Vonnegut's novels, then he wrote this following the death of his sister. His sister, coincidentally, died days after her husband was killed in a freak accident. As if this pit of depression didn't dip far enough down, the couple left a cadre of children that Vonnegut would go on to adopt.
So this is understandingly, sympathetically a departure from the Vonnegut norm. The main character is a freak that finds himself surrounded by similarly freakish people. Smartly, the freaks in this novel are those people that perhaps seem the most normal and successful. The main character is a grotesque monster who is a successful pediatrician (though he graduated at the bottom of his Ivy League class), a former Senator, and currently the reluctant President of the United States. He had written the best selling novel about child care with his best friend and twin sister. He has revolutionized mankind's interpretation of family. He is one of the few, healthy survivors left on the Island of Death (Manhattan). He has just sold the Louisiana Purchase to the King of Michigan for a dollar. And he regularly gets an erection.
Ok. Fair enough. The novel does take place in a post-apocalyptic future where most humans have been killed by a mysterious plague, Manhattan is a haven of corpses, slaves, and candlesticks, and gravity fluctuates with the weather. The usual science-fiction elements are still in place.
However, I do not put this side by side with the normal Vonnegut works, and I cannot. There is not a happy ending. However, in hindsight, I don't believe I've read a happy ending in any of his works. I suppose it's safer to say that there's more of an impending doom with little to no hope of salvation in Slapstick. But, to be fair to the reader, Vonnegut delicately expressed this very early in the book when he compared salvation to a Turkey farm one can communicate with via a lunch box.
Read it if you're curious. Read it if you're a Vonnegut fan. Go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut if you're neither. Or take a flying fuck at the moooooooooon!
I love and miss you, Kurt Vonnegut.
This books reads as a perversion of all four themes.
To me.
Usually Vonnegut's works seem to read with some underlying sense that no matter how bizarre everything seems, no matter how depressing or how inspiring a situation seems, there's always a punchline, and that punchline brings you back to reality, forcing the reader to realize that we're all human. We're all prone to make mistakes just as often as we succeeed. We're all prone to die just as sure as we're prone to live. We're all prone for 15 minutes of fame surrounded by an average of 76.4 years of mundaneness.
But that doesn't ring the same for Slapstick. The introduction gives you an immediate idea of why Vonnegut steps out of his comfort zone on this one.
If the introduction reads true, and there's no guarantee that reality and honesty aren't being blurred in any of Vonnegut's novels, then he wrote this following the death of his sister. His sister, coincidentally, died days after her husband was killed in a freak accident. As if this pit of depression didn't dip far enough down, the couple left a cadre of children that Vonnegut would go on to adopt.
So this is understandingly, sympathetically a departure from the Vonnegut norm. The main character is a freak that finds himself surrounded by similarly freakish people. Smartly, the freaks in this novel are those people that perhaps seem the most normal and successful. The main character is a grotesque monster who is a successful pediatrician (though he graduated at the bottom of his Ivy League class), a former Senator, and currently the reluctant President of the United States. He had written the best selling novel about child care with his best friend and twin sister. He has revolutionized mankind's interpretation of family. He is one of the few, healthy survivors left on the Island of Death (Manhattan). He has just sold the Louisiana Purchase to the King of Michigan for a dollar. And he regularly gets an erection.
Ok. Fair enough. The novel does take place in a post-apocalyptic future where most humans have been killed by a mysterious plague, Manhattan is a haven of corpses, slaves, and candlesticks, and gravity fluctuates with the weather. The usual science-fiction elements are still in place.
However, I do not put this side by side with the normal Vonnegut works, and I cannot. There is not a happy ending. However, in hindsight, I don't believe I've read a happy ending in any of his works. I suppose it's safer to say that there's more of an impending doom with little to no hope of salvation in Slapstick. But, to be fair to the reader, Vonnegut delicately expressed this very early in the book when he compared salvation to a Turkey farm one can communicate with via a lunch box.
Read it if you're curious. Read it if you're a Vonnegut fan. Go take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut if you're neither. Or take a flying fuck at the moooooooooon!
I love and miss you, Kurt Vonnegut.
May 22, 2019
I never put Kurt Vonnegut on my list of favorite authors鈥� and shame on me for that as I鈥檝e at the very least liked everything I鈥檝e read by the man. One of the things I always love about his work is that he was quite possibly the most hopeful cynic in existence. Pessimism is borderline overwhelming in his work, but it always seemed like deep down he still liked people and hoped we would do better, even while being positive that we were doomed by our own failures.
Well, not so here. This book is Slapstick, and like the slapstick comedies of old, there is only failure here. Some people may be good, and some may improve along the way, but there is no hope here. This is easily the bleakest novel I鈥檝e read by Vonnegut
The plot follows Dr Wilbur Daffodil-II Swain, current (and last) president of the United States of America, King of Manhattan and owner of 1,000+ candlesticks, as he documents his life story and how the world declined. It鈥檚 a tale of genius twins, mad schemes, name changes, orgies, revenge, drugs, dystopia and utopia. It鈥檚 a tale where everything can go right, even while everything goes to hell. It鈥檚 about life, the afterlife and about how to cope with both. It doesn鈥檛 make any sense in description, and yet it makes perfect sense while reading.
In other words, it鈥檚 a slapstick comedy in literary form. The bleakest slapstick you will ever read, and while it does have Vonnegut鈥檚 touches of humanity, this is very clearly a novel where he鈥檚 working out his own demons. What was he working out? I feel I can鈥檛 explain it, but he will. Literally he opens the book telling you why he wrote it鈥� and it all makes sense, and makes it even more depressing.
This one is unfocused and all over the place (even by Vonnegut standards) and overall it feels like a bit of a mess. It is easily my least favorite of his novels, yet I鈥檓 still giving a solid 3 stars. Even at his worst, Vonnegut is able to speak to me in a way that few authors鈥� hell, few humans in general, have ever been able to speak to me.
I鈥檇 like to close with just a general note. Vonnegut was not an author to be read for beautiful prose. He liked quick simple sentences, that said only as much as they needed to. Despite that, here he finds a moment or two to bring a touch of awe out of that simple prose. 鈥淪tanding among all those tiny, wavering lights, I felt as though I were God, up to my knees in the Milky Way.鈥�
Well, not so here. This book is Slapstick, and like the slapstick comedies of old, there is only failure here. Some people may be good, and some may improve along the way, but there is no hope here. This is easily the bleakest novel I鈥檝e read by Vonnegut
The plot follows Dr Wilbur Daffodil-II Swain, current (and last) president of the United States of America, King of Manhattan and owner of 1,000+ candlesticks, as he documents his life story and how the world declined. It鈥檚 a tale of genius twins, mad schemes, name changes, orgies, revenge, drugs, dystopia and utopia. It鈥檚 a tale where everything can go right, even while everything goes to hell. It鈥檚 about life, the afterlife and about how to cope with both. It doesn鈥檛 make any sense in description, and yet it makes perfect sense while reading.
In other words, it鈥檚 a slapstick comedy in literary form. The bleakest slapstick you will ever read, and while it does have Vonnegut鈥檚 touches of humanity, this is very clearly a novel where he鈥檚 working out his own demons. What was he working out? I feel I can鈥檛 explain it, but he will. Literally he opens the book telling you why he wrote it鈥� and it all makes sense, and makes it even more depressing.
This one is unfocused and all over the place (even by Vonnegut standards) and overall it feels like a bit of a mess. It is easily my least favorite of his novels, yet I鈥檓 still giving a solid 3 stars. Even at his worst, Vonnegut is able to speak to me in a way that few authors鈥� hell, few humans in general, have ever been able to speak to me.
I鈥檇 like to close with just a general note. Vonnegut was not an author to be read for beautiful prose. He liked quick simple sentences, that said only as much as they needed to. Despite that, here he finds a moment or two to bring a touch of awe out of that simple prose. 鈥淪tanding among all those tiny, wavering lights, I felt as though I were God, up to my knees in the Milky Way.鈥�
May 4, 2024
Kurt Vonnegut鈥檚 8th novel and he reaches new levels of niche weird.
The introduction is 鈥淒edicated to the memory of Arthur Stanley Jefferson and Norvell Hardy, two angels of my time.鈥�
This reader sees no Slaptsick per se in the story told, but he sure reads about being Lonesome no More.
Vonnegut gives the game away in the intro. He writes that 鈥淭HIS IS THE CLOSEST I will ever come to writing an autobiography. I have called it 鈥淪lapstick鈥� because it is grotesque, situational poetry鈥攍ike the slapstick film comedies, especially those of Laurel and Hardy, of long ago. It is about what life feels like to me. There are all these tests of my limited agility and intelligence. They go on and on. The fundamental joke with Laurel and Hardy, it seems to me, was that they did their best with every test. They never failed to bargain in good faith with their destinies, and were screamingly adorable and funny on that account. 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� There was very little love in their films. There was often the situational poetry of marriage, which was something else again鈥�
Let鈥檚 leave Kurt there and just say that to this reader this is genuinely strange but audacious fiction. Very niche. The passing Slaughterhouse Five readers was going to wander by this one, surely.
The plot includes;
The collapse of his relationship with his sister.
His none relationship with his parent鈥檚.
Family schisms in general.
Any rich idiot can be the President of the US.
The coming of the Chinese as a world power
Pandemics.
And much more that I can hardly think about such is this mixed up muddled up world of the life of Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain. This is his memoir and as the President of the United States.
And this is how Kurt Vonnegut Jr felt when this strangely compelling m茅lange of oddness that is, to repeat him, the closest he 鈥渨ill ever come to writing an autobiography鈥�?
If this is the case then he had one oddball of a relationship with his parents and his sister and all those around him.
One for the Vonnegut reader in my opinion and recommended as such.
My review of number 1 Player Piano.
/review/show...
My review of number 2 The Sirens Of Titan. /review/show...
My review of number 3 Mother Night.
/review/show...
My review of number 4 Cats Cradle.
/review/show...
My review of number 5 God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.
/review/show...
My review of number 6 Slaughter House Five
/review/show...
My review of number 7 Breakfast Of Champions.
/review/show...
The introduction is 鈥淒edicated to the memory of Arthur Stanley Jefferson and Norvell Hardy, two angels of my time.鈥�
This reader sees no Slaptsick per se in the story told, but he sure reads about being Lonesome no More.
Vonnegut gives the game away in the intro. He writes that 鈥淭HIS IS THE CLOSEST I will ever come to writing an autobiography. I have called it 鈥淪lapstick鈥� because it is grotesque, situational poetry鈥攍ike the slapstick film comedies, especially those of Laurel and Hardy, of long ago. It is about what life feels like to me. There are all these tests of my limited agility and intelligence. They go on and on. The fundamental joke with Laurel and Hardy, it seems to me, was that they did their best with every test. They never failed to bargain in good faith with their destinies, and were screamingly adorable and funny on that account. 鈥� 鈥� 鈥� There was very little love in their films. There was often the situational poetry of marriage, which was something else again鈥�
Let鈥檚 leave Kurt there and just say that to this reader this is genuinely strange but audacious fiction. Very niche. The passing Slaughterhouse Five readers was going to wander by this one, surely.
The plot includes;
The collapse of his relationship with his sister.
His none relationship with his parent鈥檚.
Family schisms in general.
Any rich idiot can be the President of the US.
The coming of the Chinese as a world power
Pandemics.
And much more that I can hardly think about such is this mixed up muddled up world of the life of Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain. This is his memoir and as the President of the United States.
And this is how Kurt Vonnegut Jr felt when this strangely compelling m茅lange of oddness that is, to repeat him, the closest he 鈥渨ill ever come to writing an autobiography鈥�?
If this is the case then he had one oddball of a relationship with his parents and his sister and all those around him.
One for the Vonnegut reader in my opinion and recommended as such.
My review of number 1 Player Piano.
/review/show...
My review of number 2 The Sirens Of Titan. /review/show...
My review of number 3 Mother Night.
/review/show...
My review of number 4 Cats Cradle.
/review/show...
My review of number 5 God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.
/review/show...
My review of number 6 Slaughter House Five
/review/show...
My review of number 7 Breakfast Of Champions.
/review/show...
June 7, 2021
It would probably take Kurt Vonnegut Jr. himself to explain all of the imagery in this amazing book. I shook with laughter many times while reading it. I consider it a necessary addition to my collection of titles by this ingenious author!
February 7, 2019
Any other Sunflower-13鈥檚 out there?
May 2, 2021
Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favorite authors. His writing style is clear and concise yet delivers a punch that will leave you feeling it long after you've finished reading.
This one however fails to deliver. I was disinterested after a few of its short chapters. I picked up on the dark humor from the beginning but it quickly became boring. Overall I didn't enjoy the story and feel his earlier works are the strongest. I would describe it as silly and as the title says, "slapstick". I found the plot boring and the characters ridiculous.
I hate to be cliche but 'Mother Night', "Slaughterhouse-Five', and 'Breakfast of Champions' are superb. 'Player Piano' and 'God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater' are other great works by Kurt Vonnegut. These works highlight the black humor yet have emotional connectivity that anyone can relate to one way or another.
I recommend reading his earlier works because they have so much more meaning and depth. Thanks!
This one however fails to deliver. I was disinterested after a few of its short chapters. I picked up on the dark humor from the beginning but it quickly became boring. Overall I didn't enjoy the story and feel his earlier works are the strongest. I would describe it as silly and as the title says, "slapstick". I found the plot boring and the characters ridiculous.
I hate to be cliche but 'Mother Night', "Slaughterhouse-Five', and 'Breakfast of Champions' are superb. 'Player Piano' and 'God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater' are other great works by Kurt Vonnegut. These works highlight the black humor yet have emotional connectivity that anyone can relate to one way or another.
I recommend reading his earlier works because they have so much more meaning and depth. Thanks!
April 7, 2025
2ND READ-THROUGH: I enjoyed this immensely, probably even more than the first time I read it (probably back in 2002). It鈥檚 a little more plot-driven than most of Vonnegut鈥檚 works, but it still explores the same basic concepts you鈥檒l find in most of his oeuvre - in fact - diving deeper and more direct into one concept in particular that doesn鈥檛 *quite* find its way all of his novels: love. Specifically, familial love, and the meaning and purpose of family. Utilizing copious dystopian imagery and weaving chaotically (but still coherently) between two narratives, there is not a dull moment in this book, even if most of it boils down to a mediation of human connection. This might be one of my favorite Vonnegut books now.
EDIT: 3RD READ-THROUGH: This actually feels like it might be the most scattershot of Vonnegut's novels, the satire is non-stop and targeted at nearly every institution. Nothing is ever eviscerated, but also, nothing is spared. I also think this secretly might be his bleakest novel. The thing that struck me reading this today, in the year 2025, how further we have slipped into tribalism, especially in American politics. I think what Vonnegut was trying to say was that this kind of tribalistic mindset is a part of human nature, so our main character, among other things, tries to harness this in a positive way, by reinventing the family unit as extended bands of people, a sort of self-sustaining unit. Of course, when the first hardship comes along --in this case, the breakdown of gravity (lol) and dual pandemics-- people are gonna people, and society immediately collapses back into warring feudal factions. It seems to me like he is saying this is how it is, how it always has been, and we are pretty much a doomed species (in this life, and in the Turkey Farm of the afterlife) from the get-go. This is just scratching the surface of what is going on in this book, but those were the thoughts that jumped out to me this go-around.
EDIT: 3RD READ-THROUGH: This actually feels like it might be the most scattershot of Vonnegut's novels, the satire is non-stop and targeted at nearly every institution. Nothing is ever eviscerated, but also, nothing is spared. I also think this secretly might be his bleakest novel. The thing that struck me reading this today, in the year 2025, how further we have slipped into tribalism, especially in American politics. I think what Vonnegut was trying to say was that this kind of tribalistic mindset is a part of human nature, so our main character, among other things, tries to harness this in a positive way, by reinventing the family unit as extended bands of people, a sort of self-sustaining unit. Of course, when the first hardship comes along --in this case, the breakdown of gravity (lol) and dual pandemics-- people are gonna people, and society immediately collapses back into warring feudal factions. It seems to me like he is saying this is how it is, how it always has been, and we are pretty much a doomed species (in this life, and in the Turkey Farm of the afterlife) from the get-go. This is just scratching the surface of what is going on in this book, but those were the thoughts that jumped out to me this go-around.
May 12, 2008
And with that, I learned once again that I was an asshole. I read 'Cat's Cradle' when I was in high school and taking a lot of ecstasy, so I hated everything except the Chemical Brothers. Since I hated Cat's Cradle then, I've assumed that I didn't like Mr Vonnegut for the last, what, dozen years? I only picked this one up 'cause I never see old editions of it and Josh said it's his favorite.
That all sucks. I mean, I don't think he's perfect- I'd remembered his kind of smug, eccentric uncle persona being at the fore kind of like Tom Robbins tends to do. (Which, by the way, is a big part of why I find Tom Robbins so unreadable- I get it, you're smart, you're charming, you're just like every other straight boy who thinks he's hot shit. Next.) But it wasn't so out front! In fact, this was just a bizarre story about genius twins that Aimee Bender would've told differently, but which she could have told.
I also feel like- I don't want to give away anything, but there are some bizarre structural things that happen. Mostly it's nice. Sometimes the way he'll gloss over a few decades is jarring for me. The bit where the main story ends and the postscript starts is such a funny, fuck-you plot decision. Love it.
So... yeah. So now I'm gonna read more of this guy. Kerry, you were right about this guy the whole time.
That all sucks. I mean, I don't think he's perfect- I'd remembered his kind of smug, eccentric uncle persona being at the fore kind of like Tom Robbins tends to do. (Which, by the way, is a big part of why I find Tom Robbins so unreadable- I get it, you're smart, you're charming, you're just like every other straight boy who thinks he's hot shit. Next.) But it wasn't so out front! In fact, this was just a bizarre story about genius twins that Aimee Bender would've told differently, but which she could have told.
I also feel like- I don't want to give away anything, but there are some bizarre structural things that happen. Mostly it's nice. Sometimes the way he'll gloss over a few decades is jarring for me. The bit where the main story ends and the postscript starts is such a funny, fuck-you plot decision. Love it.
So... yeah. So now I'm gonna read more of this guy. Kerry, you were right about this guy the whole time.
November 22, 2016
The problem I have with most Vonnegut books is that they feel like they've been churned out of a random plot generator machine. I imagine Vonnegut throwing a bunch of scraps in a hat and then challenging himself to string the items together into some sort of book which will then fly off the shelves because he's VONNEGUT, for chrissakes. Sometimes the ideas hang together in interesting and fun ways. Other times they just flop around uselessly, sort of cute but really kind of gross, like a beagle without any legs. The former would be Cat's Cradle. The latter would be Slapstick.
The repetition of hi-ho, which I suppose Vonnegut's idea of being cutesy, drove me crazy by the end of the book. I've seen this sort of writerly tic in some of his other books, and I've never understood why he did it. I get the feeling that he was just looking for filler in a book that was already chock full of nothing anyway.
It was a quick read and vaguely entertaining, but definitely not a book I'd recommend to a friend.
The repetition of hi-ho, which I suppose Vonnegut's idea of being cutesy, drove me crazy by the end of the book. I've seen this sort of writerly tic in some of his other books, and I've never understood why he did it. I get the feeling that he was just looking for filler in a book that was already chock full of nothing anyway.
It was a quick read and vaguely entertaining, but definitely not a book I'd recommend to a friend.
March 14, 2014
This was the very first Vonnegut book I鈥檝e read, and while Slaughterhouse 5 is probably the most popular starter (as far as I鈥檝e heard) I picked this volume at complete random because Barnes & Noble didn鈥檛 have Sirens of Titan which is what I originally wanted.
In any event, I think this was quite a stroke of luck: Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! is a semi-autobiographical work, and for someone like me, who prefers to begin everything with first principles, I think this makes for an especially great start. It gives you a sense of the author鈥檚 primary perspective before you venture off to study its other manifestations.
I preface my further thoughts with an expression of reservation - I am reluctant to judge a man by his book. Nonetheless, to whatever extent this is true of Vonnegut is a person, I felt that his worldview was most informed by loneliness鈥� loneliness of a very special kind, a sort of intellectual isolation which, it seems, could only be broken by his sister. With his sister dead of cancer in her forties, the novel (and the autobiographical introduction) convey the sense that her death left Vonnegut very much alone.
This loneliness permeates every page and it translated instantly to me as the reader. I鈥檓 not quite sure how. It is somehow ingrained in the desperation of the prose, and the foolish hope and desire to well, not be lonely anymore. I was surrounded by family as I finished the novel in one sitting, but the isolation Slapstick left me with was overwhelming. Some believed this to be an overstatement, but I think the only other author who left me with such a heavy emotional burden was Dostoyevsky. I couldn鈥檛 shake it for a couple of days. It seems to me that Vonnegut is a master of meanings, conveyed with every word and phrase and period - not just broad structural and literary brushstrokes.
I am astounded by Vonnegut鈥檚 ability to take individually absurd events and ideas and combine them into something so powerful and tremendous. I don鈥檛 know whether to let his wit make me laugh or cry. I don鈥檛 know if I鈥檓 ready for the full extent of his ability to manipulate me.
In other words, I鈥檓 in love.
Hi ho.
In any event, I think this was quite a stroke of luck: Slapstick, or Lonesome No More! is a semi-autobiographical work, and for someone like me, who prefers to begin everything with first principles, I think this makes for an especially great start. It gives you a sense of the author鈥檚 primary perspective before you venture off to study its other manifestations.
I preface my further thoughts with an expression of reservation - I am reluctant to judge a man by his book. Nonetheless, to whatever extent this is true of Vonnegut is a person, I felt that his worldview was most informed by loneliness鈥� loneliness of a very special kind, a sort of intellectual isolation which, it seems, could only be broken by his sister. With his sister dead of cancer in her forties, the novel (and the autobiographical introduction) convey the sense that her death left Vonnegut very much alone.
This loneliness permeates every page and it translated instantly to me as the reader. I鈥檓 not quite sure how. It is somehow ingrained in the desperation of the prose, and the foolish hope and desire to well, not be lonely anymore. I was surrounded by family as I finished the novel in one sitting, but the isolation Slapstick left me with was overwhelming. Some believed this to be an overstatement, but I think the only other author who left me with such a heavy emotional burden was Dostoyevsky. I couldn鈥檛 shake it for a couple of days. It seems to me that Vonnegut is a master of meanings, conveyed with every word and phrase and period - not just broad structural and literary brushstrokes.
I am astounded by Vonnegut鈥檚 ability to take individually absurd events and ideas and combine them into something so powerful and tremendous. I don鈥檛 know whether to let his wit make me laugh or cry. I don鈥檛 know if I鈥檓 ready for the full extent of his ability to manipulate me.
In other words, I鈥檓 in love.
Hi ho.
April 29, 2020
孝芯屑褍, 泻芯谐芯 褑械 褋褌芯褋褍褦褌褜褋褟:
袣薪懈卸泻懈 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌邪 写懈胁薪褨, 薪械蟹胁懈褔邪泄薪褨, 锌褉械泻褉邪褋薪褨 褨 褔械褋薪褨. 袙邪卸泻芯 胁褌芯褉芯锌邪褌懈, 褋屑褨褕薪芯 褨 斜芯谢褟褔械 胁褨写 锌褉邪胁写懈胁芯谐芯 褔芯褉薪芯谐芯 谐褍屑芯褉褍, 褋褍屑薪芯 褔械褉械蟹 锌芯写褨褩, 邪谢械 胁褨写褨褉胁邪褌懈褋褟 薪械屑芯卸谢懈胁芯.
芦袘褍褎芯薪邪写邪, 邪斜芯 袘褨谢褜褕械 薪械 褋邪屑芯褌薪褨禄 鈥� 写芯斜褉邪 褨 褔褍褌谢懈胁邪 褨褋褌芯褉褨褟, 褏芯褔 褨, 褟泻 卸械 褨薪邪泻褕械, 蟹 械胁芯谢褞褑褨褦褞 谢褞写褋褌胁邪 褖芯褋褜 锌褨褕谢芯 薪械 褌邪泻. 袣褍褉褌 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌 谐褉邪褦 蟹邪 胁谢邪褋薪懈屑懈 锌褉邪胁懈谢邪屑懈, 褌芯屑褍 芯锌懈褋邪褌懈 褋褞卸械褌 褔懈 屑芯褉邪谢褜 泻薪懈卸泻懈 胁邪卸泻芯. 效懈 屑邪褦屑芯 屑懈 斜褍褌懈 写芯斜褉褨褕懈屑懈 芯写懈薪 写芯 芯写薪芯谐芯? 效懈 屑邪褦屑芯 屑懈 斜褨谢褜褕械 褉邪写褨褌懈 锌褉芯褋褌懈屑 褉械褔邪屑 褨 斜褍褌懈 褋胁芯谐芯 褉芯写褍 写褍褉薪褟屑懈 蟹邪屑褨褋褌褜 胁褌懈褋泻邪褌懈褋褟 胁 褋芯褑褨邪谢褜薪械 卸懈褌褌褟 褨 芦锌褉邪胁懈谢褜薪褍禄 锌芯胁械写褨薪泻褍? 效懈 谢褞写褋褌胁芯 褌邪泻懈 蟹褉褍泄薪褍褦 胁褋械, 邪 锌褉懈褉芯写邪 胁褨蟹褜屑械 褋胁芯褦? 校 泻芯卸薪芯谐芯 锌褨褋谢褟 锌褉芯褔懈褌邪薪薪褟 斜褍写褍褌褜 褋胁芯褩 锌懈褌邪薪薪褟. 袨写薪械 蟹 褟泻懈褏, 薪械 胁懈泻谢褞褔械薪芯, 鈥� 芦褖芯 蟹邪 屑邪褟褔薪褞 褟 褌褨谢褜泻懈-薪芯 锌褉芯褔懈褌邪胁/谢邪?禄.
鉅赌
袟写邪褦褌褜褋褟, 褖芯 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌 薪械 写褍卸械 谢褞斜懈胁 谢褞写械泄. 啸芯褔邪 褋泻芯褉褨褕械 薪械 谢褞斜懈胁 褌械, 褖芯 谢褞写懈 褉芯斜谢褟褌褜 蟹 锌谢邪薪械褌芯褞 褌邪 褋邪屑懈屑懈 褋芯斜芯褞. 袩械褉械卸懈胁 斜芯屑斜邪褉写褍胁邪薪薪褟 袛褉械蟹写械薪邪, 斜邪褔懈胁 薪邪 胁谢邪褋薪褨 芯褔褨, 褟泻 蟹邪 泻褨谢褜泻邪 写薪褨胁 谢褞写懈 屑芯卸褍褌褜 蟹褉褍泄薪褍胁邪褌懈 泻褉邪褋懈胁械 屑褨褋褌芯, 褟泻械 斜褍写褍胁邪谢芯褋褟 褋褌芯谢褨褌褌褟屑懈 (褔懈褌邪泄褌械 芦袘芯泄薪褟 薪芯屑械褉 锌鈥櫻徰傃�, 邪斜芯 啸褉械褋褌芯胁懈泄 锌芯褏褨写 写褨褌械泄禄); 锌械褉械卸懈胁 胁褌褉邪褌褍 斜谢懈蟹褜泻芯褩 写褍褕褨 褨 胁蟹褟胁 褍 胁谢邪褋薪褍 褋褨屑鈥櫻� 胁卸械 蟹 褌褉褜芯屑邪 写褨褌褜屑懈 褖械 褌褉褜芯褏 写褨褌械泄 (褔邪褋褌泻芯胁芯 锌褉芯 褑械 褍 芦袘褍褎芯薪邪写邪, 邪斜芯 袘褨谢褜褕械 薪械 褋邪屑芯褌薪褨禄). 孝芯屑褍 褟泻芯褋褜 褨 褑褨泻邪胁芯, 褔芯屑褍 褍 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌邪 蟹 谢褞写褋褌胁芯屑 蟹邪胁卸写懈 褖芯褋褜 泄写械 薪械 褌邪泻: 胁褨薪 褏芯褔械 胁褨写芯屑褋褌懈褌懈 褔懈 薪邪胁锌邪泻懈 褏芯褔械 蟹褉芯斜懈褌懈 写芯斜褉械 褨 锌芯胁械褉薪褍褌懈 谢褞写褋褌胁芯 写芯 锌褉懈褉芯写懈?
袗 胁蟹邪谐邪谢褨 屑械薪褨 锌芯写芯斜邪褦褌褜褋褟, 褟泻 谢械谐泻芯 谢谢褦褌褜褋褟 褎邪薪褌邪蟹褨褟 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌邪 胁 芦袘褍褎芯薪邪写褨禄 褌邪 泄 褨薪褕懈褏 泻薪懈卸泻邪褏. 袧褨斜懈 蟹写邪褦褌褜褋褟, 褖芯 邪胁褌芯褉 胁卸械 胁懈泻谢邪胁 胁褋褨 泻邪褉褌懈 薪邪 褋褌褨谢, 邪 薪邪褋锌褉邪胁写褨 褔懈褌邪褦褕 褨 胁褋械 写懈胁褍褦褕褋褟, 褟泻懈屑 褔懈薪芯屑 褌邪泻 谐邪褉薪芯 褋褞写懈 锌褉懈锌谢械谢芯褋褟 褖械 泄 褑械. 笑械泄 械褎械泻褌 写芯 胁褋褜芯谐芯 锌芯褋懈谢褞褦褌褜褋褟 褔械褉械蟹 褌械, 褖芯 褉芯蟹锌芯胁褨写褜 泄写械 胁褨写 锌械褉褕芯褩 芯褋芯斜懈, 褑褜芯谐芯 褉邪蟹褍 胁褨写 袣芯褉芯谢褟 泻邪薪写械谢褟斜褉褨胁. 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌 褔邪褋褌械薪褜泻芯 谢褞斜懈褌褜 薪邪 锌芯褔邪褌泻褍 泻薪懈卸芯泻 褉芯蟹锌芯胁褨写邪褌懈, 褖芯 褋邪屑械 锌褉懈胁械谢芯 泄芯谐芯 写芯 屑邪泄斜褍褌薪褜芯褩 褨褋褌芯褉褨褩. 孝芯屑褍 褨 胁懈褏芯写懈褌褜 褌邪泻邪 褌芯薪泻邪 谐褉邪薪褜 屑褨卸 褉械邪谢褜薪懈屑 褨 芯褋芯斜懈褋褌懈屑 卸懈褌褌褟屑 邪胁褌芯褉邪 褌邪 泄芯谐芯 胁懈谐邪写邪薪懈屑 屑邪泄斜褍褌薪褨屑. 袧械 胁褋褌懈谐邪褦褕 蟹邪泻褉懈褌懈 褉芯褌邪 胁褨写 锌芯写褨泄, 褟泻褨 锌械褉械卸懈胁 邪胁褌芯褉, 褟泻 胁卸械 写芯胁芯写懈褌褜褋褟 锌褉懈褋褌芯褋褍胁邪褌懈褋褟 写芯 写懈胁邪褑褌胁 泄芯谐芯 锌械褉褋芯薪邪卸褨胁 褌邪 褋褞卸械褌褍, 褟泻褨 锌芯胁鈥櫻徯沸靶窖� 蟹 褉械邪谢褜薪褨褋褌褞, 褏芯褔 褨 胁懈谐邪写邪薪褨.
袉 薪邪芯褋褌邪薪芯泻: 写懈胁薪懈屑 褔懈薪芯屑 褨褋褌芯褉褨褩 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌邪 薪械 胁懈泻谢懈泻邪褞褌褜 褋褌褉邪褏, 邪 褋泻芯褉褨褕械 褋屑褨褏 褨 褋锌芯泻褨泄.
啸芯褔邪 锌芯写械泻芯谢懈 褋褌褉邪褕薪芯.
袚械泄-谐芯.
袣薪懈卸泻懈 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌邪 写懈胁薪褨, 薪械蟹胁懈褔邪泄薪褨, 锌褉械泻褉邪褋薪褨 褨 褔械褋薪褨. 袙邪卸泻芯 胁褌芯褉芯锌邪褌懈, 褋屑褨褕薪芯 褨 斜芯谢褟褔械 胁褨写 锌褉邪胁写懈胁芯谐芯 褔芯褉薪芯谐芯 谐褍屑芯褉褍, 褋褍屑薪芯 褔械褉械蟹 锌芯写褨褩, 邪谢械 胁褨写褨褉胁邪褌懈褋褟 薪械屑芯卸谢懈胁芯.
芦袘褍褎芯薪邪写邪, 邪斜芯 袘褨谢褜褕械 薪械 褋邪屑芯褌薪褨禄 鈥� 写芯斜褉邪 褨 褔褍褌谢懈胁邪 褨褋褌芯褉褨褟, 褏芯褔 褨, 褟泻 卸械 褨薪邪泻褕械, 蟹 械胁芯谢褞褑褨褦褞 谢褞写褋褌胁邪 褖芯褋褜 锌褨褕谢芯 薪械 褌邪泻. 袣褍褉褌 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌 谐褉邪褦 蟹邪 胁谢邪褋薪懈屑懈 锌褉邪胁懈谢邪屑懈, 褌芯屑褍 芯锌懈褋邪褌懈 褋褞卸械褌 褔懈 屑芯褉邪谢褜 泻薪懈卸泻懈 胁邪卸泻芯. 效懈 屑邪褦屑芯 屑懈 斜褍褌懈 写芯斜褉褨褕懈屑懈 芯写懈薪 写芯 芯写薪芯谐芯? 效懈 屑邪褦屑芯 屑懈 斜褨谢褜褕械 褉邪写褨褌懈 锌褉芯褋褌懈屑 褉械褔邪屑 褨 斜褍褌懈 褋胁芯谐芯 褉芯写褍 写褍褉薪褟屑懈 蟹邪屑褨褋褌褜 胁褌懈褋泻邪褌懈褋褟 胁 褋芯褑褨邪谢褜薪械 卸懈褌褌褟 褨 芦锌褉邪胁懈谢褜薪褍禄 锌芯胁械写褨薪泻褍? 效懈 谢褞写褋褌胁芯 褌邪泻懈 蟹褉褍泄薪褍褦 胁褋械, 邪 锌褉懈褉芯写邪 胁褨蟹褜屑械 褋胁芯褦? 校 泻芯卸薪芯谐芯 锌褨褋谢褟 锌褉芯褔懈褌邪薪薪褟 斜褍写褍褌褜 褋胁芯褩 锌懈褌邪薪薪褟. 袨写薪械 蟹 褟泻懈褏, 薪械 胁懈泻谢褞褔械薪芯, 鈥� 芦褖芯 蟹邪 屑邪褟褔薪褞 褟 褌褨谢褜泻懈-薪芯 锌褉芯褔懈褌邪胁/谢邪?禄.
鉅赌
袟写邪褦褌褜褋褟, 褖芯 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌 薪械 写褍卸械 谢褞斜懈胁 谢褞写械泄. 啸芯褔邪 褋泻芯褉褨褕械 薪械 谢褞斜懈胁 褌械, 褖芯 谢褞写懈 褉芯斜谢褟褌褜 蟹 锌谢邪薪械褌芯褞 褌邪 褋邪屑懈屑懈 褋芯斜芯褞. 袩械褉械卸懈胁 斜芯屑斜邪褉写褍胁邪薪薪褟 袛褉械蟹写械薪邪, 斜邪褔懈胁 薪邪 胁谢邪褋薪褨 芯褔褨, 褟泻 蟹邪 泻褨谢褜泻邪 写薪褨胁 谢褞写懈 屑芯卸褍褌褜 蟹褉褍泄薪褍胁邪褌懈 泻褉邪褋懈胁械 屑褨褋褌芯, 褟泻械 斜褍写褍胁邪谢芯褋褟 褋褌芯谢褨褌褌褟屑懈 (褔懈褌邪泄褌械 芦袘芯泄薪褟 薪芯屑械褉 锌鈥櫻徰傃�, 邪斜芯 啸褉械褋褌芯胁懈泄 锌芯褏褨写 写褨褌械泄禄); 锌械褉械卸懈胁 胁褌褉邪褌褍 斜谢懈蟹褜泻芯褩 写褍褕褨 褨 胁蟹褟胁 褍 胁谢邪褋薪褍 褋褨屑鈥櫻� 胁卸械 蟹 褌褉褜芯屑邪 写褨褌褜屑懈 褖械 褌褉褜芯褏 写褨褌械泄 (褔邪褋褌泻芯胁芯 锌褉芯 褑械 褍 芦袘褍褎芯薪邪写邪, 邪斜芯 袘褨谢褜褕械 薪械 褋邪屑芯褌薪褨禄). 孝芯屑褍 褟泻芯褋褜 褨 褑褨泻邪胁芯, 褔芯屑褍 褍 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌邪 蟹 谢褞写褋褌胁芯屑 蟹邪胁卸写懈 褖芯褋褜 泄写械 薪械 褌邪泻: 胁褨薪 褏芯褔械 胁褨写芯屑褋褌懈褌懈 褔懈 薪邪胁锌邪泻懈 褏芯褔械 蟹褉芯斜懈褌懈 写芯斜褉械 褨 锌芯胁械褉薪褍褌懈 谢褞写褋褌胁芯 写芯 锌褉懈褉芯写懈?
袗 胁蟹邪谐邪谢褨 屑械薪褨 锌芯写芯斜邪褦褌褜褋褟, 褟泻 谢械谐泻芯 谢谢褦褌褜褋褟 褎邪薪褌邪蟹褨褟 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌邪 胁 芦袘褍褎芯薪邪写褨禄 褌邪 泄 褨薪褕懈褏 泻薪懈卸泻邪褏. 袧褨斜懈 蟹写邪褦褌褜褋褟, 褖芯 邪胁褌芯褉 胁卸械 胁懈泻谢邪胁 胁褋褨 泻邪褉褌懈 薪邪 褋褌褨谢, 邪 薪邪褋锌褉邪胁写褨 褔懈褌邪褦褕 褨 胁褋械 写懈胁褍褦褕褋褟, 褟泻懈屑 褔懈薪芯屑 褌邪泻 谐邪褉薪芯 褋褞写懈 锌褉懈锌谢械谢芯褋褟 褖械 泄 褑械. 笑械泄 械褎械泻褌 写芯 胁褋褜芯谐芯 锌芯褋懈谢褞褦褌褜褋褟 褔械褉械蟹 褌械, 褖芯 褉芯蟹锌芯胁褨写褜 泄写械 胁褨写 锌械褉褕芯褩 芯褋芯斜懈, 褑褜芯谐芯 褉邪蟹褍 胁褨写 袣芯褉芯谢褟 泻邪薪写械谢褟斜褉褨胁. 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌 褔邪褋褌械薪褜泻芯 谢褞斜懈褌褜 薪邪 锌芯褔邪褌泻褍 泻薪懈卸芯泻 褉芯蟹锌芯胁褨写邪褌懈, 褖芯 褋邪屑械 锌褉懈胁械谢芯 泄芯谐芯 写芯 屑邪泄斜褍褌薪褜芯褩 褨褋褌芯褉褨褩. 孝芯屑褍 褨 胁懈褏芯写懈褌褜 褌邪泻邪 褌芯薪泻邪 谐褉邪薪褜 屑褨卸 褉械邪谢褜薪懈屑 褨 芯褋芯斜懈褋褌懈屑 卸懈褌褌褟屑 邪胁褌芯褉邪 褌邪 泄芯谐芯 胁懈谐邪写邪薪懈屑 屑邪泄斜褍褌薪褨屑. 袧械 胁褋褌懈谐邪褦褕 蟹邪泻褉懈褌懈 褉芯褌邪 胁褨写 锌芯写褨泄, 褟泻褨 锌械褉械卸懈胁 邪胁褌芯褉, 褟泻 胁卸械 写芯胁芯写懈褌褜褋褟 锌褉懈褋褌芯褋褍胁邪褌懈褋褟 写芯 写懈胁邪褑褌胁 泄芯谐芯 锌械褉褋芯薪邪卸褨胁 褌邪 褋褞卸械褌褍, 褟泻褨 锌芯胁鈥櫻徯沸靶窖� 蟹 褉械邪谢褜薪褨褋褌褞, 褏芯褔 褨 胁懈谐邪写邪薪褨.
袉 薪邪芯褋褌邪薪芯泻: 写懈胁薪懈屑 褔懈薪芯屑 褨褋褌芯褉褨褩 袙芯薪薪械覒褍褌邪 薪械 胁懈泻谢懈泻邪褞褌褜 褋褌褉邪褏, 邪 褋泻芯褉褨褕械 褋屑褨褏 褨 褋锌芯泻褨泄.
啸芯褔邪 锌芯写械泻芯谢懈 褋褌褉邪褕薪芯.
袚械泄-谐芯.
January 25, 2024
Daily Vonnegut 鈥� Day 4.
I鈥檓 not even quite sure if there is anything for me to say with this story. It is maddening, but somehow manages to keep me curious about it the entire time. It has all the wit and humour that you may or may not like about Vonnegut. So if you like Vonnegut, this is the Vonnegutest. Of course, I can find a lot of time for his repetition of 鈥淭ime Flew鈥� throughout the pages. I can also find a lot of time for this phrase:
鈥淲hy don't you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut? Why don't you take a flying fuck at the moooooooooooon?鈥�
Vonnegut himself graded this book a D when he was going through his works in Palm Sunday. Fair enough.
Hi-ho.
I鈥檓 not even quite sure if there is anything for me to say with this story. It is maddening, but somehow manages to keep me curious about it the entire time. It has all the wit and humour that you may or may not like about Vonnegut. So if you like Vonnegut, this is the Vonnegutest. Of course, I can find a lot of time for his repetition of 鈥淭ime Flew鈥� throughout the pages. I can also find a lot of time for this phrase:
鈥淲hy don't you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut? Why don't you take a flying fuck at the moooooooooooon?鈥�
Vonnegut himself graded this book a D when he was going through his works in Palm Sunday. Fair enough.
Hi-ho.
January 1, 2017
"I wish that people who are conventionally supposed to love each other would say to each other, when they fight, 鈥淧lease鈥攁 little less love, and a little more common decency." (3)Vonnegut famously, while self-assessing his work, gave Slapstick a D. Writers are notoriously poor at evaluating their own work, however, and Vonnegut's assessment of Slapstick is no exception. The Prologue is one of his most personal pieces of writing, as is the work itself 鈥� revolving, as it does, around the death of Kurt's sister and the close bond they always shared. Sure, the novel is not as well-thought-out as some of his others, but it is funny and sad and clever in good portions 鈥� and hey, after all, it is supposed to be Slapstick.
January 20, 2022
A tragicomic dystopia that you cannot stop reading. It's probably a lot more relevant today than when it was written. Lonesome no more!
May 16, 2007
Note that I am giving this book a low rating as compared to Vonnegut's other books, and is not necessarily reflective of my opinion of it as a fine work of fiction.
Really, when compared to the similarly-themed and , this one just doesn't hold up as well. It boasts a classic Vonnegatian comedic end-of-the-world scenario, but Slapstick just doesn't quite live up to the standard set by his previous novels, and achieved again by later ones. I guess I can't really offer a better explanation.
I read somewhere that Vonnegut considered this one the weakest of his catalog. I'm inclined to agree with the old man.
Really, when compared to the similarly-themed and , this one just doesn't hold up as well. It boasts a classic Vonnegatian comedic end-of-the-world scenario, but Slapstick just doesn't quite live up to the standard set by his previous novels, and achieved again by later ones. I guess I can't really offer a better explanation.
I read somewhere that Vonnegut considered this one the weakest of his catalog. I'm inclined to agree with the old man.
May 2, 2012
Although not his best work, Slapstick is still pretty good if you are able to enjoy the creative mix of pathos and humor characteristic of Vonnegut's style. As ever, the book is a meditation on the human condition as if seen by Kant's hypothetically impotent, but wholly good, god.
July 30, 2008
Slapsucked.
Hi-ho.
Hi-ho.
April 28, 2021
小褌褉邪薪械薪, 褋褌褉邪薪械薪 袙芯薪械谐褗褌... ; ))
"小胁械褌褗褌 械 锌褗谢械薪 褋 褏芯褉邪, 泻芯懈褌芯 褋邪 屑薪芯谐芯 懈蟹泻褍褋薪懈 胁 褋褗蟹写邪胁邪薪械 薪邪 胁锌械褔邪褌谢械薪懈械, 褔械 褋邪 锌芯-褍屑薪懈, 芯褌泻芯谢泻芯褌芯 褋邪 胁 写械泄褋褌胁懈褌械谢薪芯褋褌. 孝械 薪懈 蟹邪锌谢懈褌邪褌 懈 芯屑邪泄胁邪褌 褋 褎邪泻褌懈, 褑懈褌邪褌懈, 褔褍卸写懈 械蟹懈褑懈 懈 褌.薪., 写芯泻邪褌芯 胁褋褗褖薪芯褋褌 薪械 蟹薪邪褟褌 锌芯褔褌懈 薪懈褖芯 蟹邪 锌芯谢械蟹薪芯褌芯 胁 卸懈胁芯褌邪 懈 泻邪泻 懈褋褌懈薪褋泻懈 写邪 褋械 卸懈胁械械. 袦芯褟褌邪 褑械谢 械 写邪 芯褌泻褉懈胁邪屑 褌械蟹懈 褏芯褉邪 懈 写邪 蟹邪褖懈褖邪胁邪屑 芯斜褖械褋褌胁芯褌芯 芯褌 褌褟褏, 泻邪泻褌芯 懈 褋邪屑懈褌械 褌褟褏 芯褌 褋芯斜褋褌胁械薪邪褌邪 懈屑 谢懈褔薪芯褋褌."
"小胁械褌褗褌 械 锌褗谢械薪 褋 褏芯褉邪, 泻芯懈褌芯 褋邪 屑薪芯谐芯 懈蟹泻褍褋薪懈 胁 褋褗蟹写邪胁邪薪械 薪邪 胁锌械褔邪褌谢械薪懈械, 褔械 褋邪 锌芯-褍屑薪懈, 芯褌泻芯谢泻芯褌芯 褋邪 胁 写械泄褋褌胁懈褌械谢薪芯褋褌. 孝械 薪懈 蟹邪锌谢懈褌邪褌 懈 芯屑邪泄胁邪褌 褋 褎邪泻褌懈, 褑懈褌邪褌懈, 褔褍卸写懈 械蟹懈褑懈 懈 褌.薪., 写芯泻邪褌芯 胁褋褗褖薪芯褋褌 薪械 蟹薪邪褟褌 锌芯褔褌懈 薪懈褖芯 蟹邪 锌芯谢械蟹薪芯褌芯 胁 卸懈胁芯褌邪 懈 泻邪泻 懈褋褌懈薪褋泻懈 写邪 褋械 卸懈胁械械. 袦芯褟褌邪 褑械谢 械 写邪 芯褌泻褉懈胁邪屑 褌械蟹懈 褏芯褉邪 懈 写邪 蟹邪褖懈褖邪胁邪屑 芯斜褖械褋褌胁芯褌芯 芯褌 褌褟褏, 泻邪泻褌芯 懈 褋邪屑懈褌械 褌褟褏 芯褌 褋芯斜褋褌胁械薪邪褌邪 懈屑 谢懈褔薪芯褋褌."
February 4, 2017
Another example of what makes Vonnegut so great. "Slapstick" combines sarcasm, humor, an absurd plot, and a critique of society and every part of it works. This is no where near his best book and yet it's still leaps and bounds over most other books.
January 11, 2018
Actual rating: 4.5
*This shall be one of my shortest reviews, because all that needs to be said of this book, can be derived from the next six words*
Absurd
Profound
Endlessly comical
Hi Ho
*This shall be one of my shortest reviews, because all that needs to be said of this book, can be derived from the next six words*
Absurd
Profound
Endlessly comical
Hi Ho
December 23, 2020
Coincidence: choosing this book including a mysterious disease named 鈥楾he Green Death鈥� which is actually microscopic Chinese people; invariably fatal when ingested by normal-sized humans. Hi ho!
It is also quite possibly my greatest ever secondhand book find - a first edition Vonnegut 馃檶馃徎 Not only that, it cost a mere 99 pence 馃檶馃徎.
As Vonneguts go, this was by no means his finest but there is enough there for an enjoyable read and lasting message: be kind.
It is in fact the prologue to the book, where the real steel lies. Not only is it a heartfelt and honest account of the passing of his sister (and how he and his wife adopt her three sons) but it also the key to the way the book should be interpreted: 鈥業t is what life 鈥榝eels鈥� like to me.鈥�
It is about an old man named Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, 鈥楾he king of the Candlesticks鈥� who became president of the United States and is now writing his autobiography in the the Empire State Building amidst an apocalypse/global pandemic. Hi Ho. He is one half of a freakish neandethaloid set of dizygotic twins, hideously ugly yet physically extreme and of superior health, complete with immense intelligence (but only when he and his equally grotesque sister press their heads together and, um, kind of, touch each other up.) Hi Ho.
There are some interesting and hilarious ideas included: giving a nation鈥檚 population new randomly generated middle names in order to establish huge families of people, thus creating more relatives to increase community and support across the country; gravity being tampered with until it henceforth fluctuates - giving all males left alive, erections on the days that it is light; a race working at shrinking themselves as a means to survive more efficiently (needing less food, needing less oxygen so as to be able to travel farther distances in space). All from 1976, what a man.
I wouldn鈥檛 make this your first Vonnegut since I don鈥檛 think it showcases his full genius, but if you are a seasoned Vonnegut reader, Slapstick has more than enough to spark those feelings of awe and enjoyment we fans get from his absurd but profound work. Hi ho.
It is also quite possibly my greatest ever secondhand book find - a first edition Vonnegut 馃檶馃徎 Not only that, it cost a mere 99 pence 馃檶馃徎.
As Vonneguts go, this was by no means his finest but there is enough there for an enjoyable read and lasting message: be kind.
It is in fact the prologue to the book, where the real steel lies. Not only is it a heartfelt and honest account of the passing of his sister (and how he and his wife adopt her three sons) but it also the key to the way the book should be interpreted: 鈥業t is what life 鈥榝eels鈥� like to me.鈥�
It is about an old man named Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, 鈥楾he king of the Candlesticks鈥� who became president of the United States and is now writing his autobiography in the the Empire State Building amidst an apocalypse/global pandemic. Hi Ho. He is one half of a freakish neandethaloid set of dizygotic twins, hideously ugly yet physically extreme and of superior health, complete with immense intelligence (but only when he and his equally grotesque sister press their heads together and, um, kind of, touch each other up.) Hi Ho.
There are some interesting and hilarious ideas included: giving a nation鈥檚 population new randomly generated middle names in order to establish huge families of people, thus creating more relatives to increase community and support across the country; gravity being tampered with until it henceforth fluctuates - giving all males left alive, erections on the days that it is light; a race working at shrinking themselves as a means to survive more efficiently (needing less food, needing less oxygen so as to be able to travel farther distances in space). All from 1976, what a man.
I wouldn鈥檛 make this your first Vonnegut since I don鈥檛 think it showcases his full genius, but if you are a seasoned Vonnegut reader, Slapstick has more than enough to spark those feelings of awe and enjoyment we fans get from his absurd but profound work. Hi ho.
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