monkeyhouse

[Andy]

I bought this book of short stories tonight.  i've never read K  Vonn. before.  did I make a decent first choice?

[Jason]

It rocks the fat ass.

[Sarah]

It's a good gateway book.  Vonnegut wraps despair in a funny and fun package, so you can get started just about anywhere, though. 

[masterofsparks]

What does the little cell phone icon next to this thread mean? Is this supposed to indicate that the thread was started on an Iphone?

[Martin]

It means Andy is posting from his phone like he's some kind of big shot.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

You did, Andy, though I'd recommend one of the big ones, like Slaughterhouse Five, Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle, or Jailbird to start.

[Sarah]

Cat's Cradle was my first.  My daddy told me the story when I was a wee thing sitting on his knee, and I read it as soon as I could.

[Shaggy 2 Grote]

I read Breakfast of Champions when I was maybe 10 and thought it was hilarious - Vonnegut drawing a picture of his asshole!  And it's basically an asterisk! - but then read it again at 16 or so and was struck by how unbearably sad it was.

[Spoony]

I read Cat's Cradle first. My father had a big box of them in the attic and I started reading them young because I liked the cover illustrations. A side effect of this is that I understood maybe half of what I read and now I'm nonplussed over the apocalypse.

Monkey House is great though, and will slide through that iPhone nice and easy if you can find it online.

C

[buffcoat]

I like his short stories better than his novels (though I still like his novels).  Monkey House is really, really good.  Especially Harrison Bergeron.

[bruce]

I like his short stories better than his novels (though I still like his novels).  Monkey House is really, really good.  Especially Harrison Bergeron.

I totally agree with you Buffcoat

[Sarah]

I found Vonnegut entertaining but immensely silly and obvious when I first read him.  It didn't help that all around were all these kids ooh-ing and ah-ing about how wonderful and deep he was, which of course predisposed me to despise him, contrarian that I sometimes am.  It was only when I picked up his books decades later that I came to appreciate him.  And even then I preferred his later stuff to his early antics.

[Spoony]

Does anyone remember Sanpcase's song Harrison Bergeron? Blah. Let's take a great story and run it through the adolescent hardcore meat-grinder. Now jocks can appreciate it!

[Amplituden]

I really enjoyed Bluebeard and Dead-Eye Dick.
Check those out.

[Andy]

the band Dead-eye dick?