Cat's Cradle: A Novel by Kurt Vonnegut Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Cat's Cradle: A Novel
Book Review: A classic book that everybody should read
Summary: 5 Stars
My dad told me to read this book and I looked at him like he was crazy. I hadn't read a book any harder than Harry Potter and MAD magazine for the last few years, why would he expect me to read this mumble jumble. I agreed to give it a try and sat down and read the back. It sounded like a intersting book so I decided to read the first chapter or so. After about an hour of reading I realized that I could not put the book down. One thing about Cat's Cradle is that it is very well written but it doesn't have a high diffuculty of reading, so a boy like me could read and enjoy it. Cat's Cradle is a very fun and a feel good book, but it has suspence and drama that keeps tou on the edge of your seat. The book features a whole made up religion, started on a crazy made up island and crazy characters on the island and even a crazy substance that could end the world, all this coming from the mind of Kurt Vonnegut, who wrote the wonderful tale. I think that if there is 5 books that everybody should read in their lives, this should be one of them. Cat's Cradle is just so imaganitive it just makes you want to be inside the book. So if you haven't read this book, I suggest you jump out of your seat right now and go to the library and read Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. It is a great book.Book Review: A delight!
Summary: 5 Stars
Cat's Cradle was the first book by Vonnegut I'd read, and I was definitely not disappointed. Unlike a real, "empty" cat's cradle, this book was filled with irony, wit, and hard truths about society that ring true even (especially?) today. If Cat's Cradle wasn't so damn funny, it would be chilling ... his end-of-the-world scenerio is devastatingly simple enough to be real. Amidst this tale of impending doom, Vonnegut makes the reader think about religion, politics, and science with an increasingly cynical outlook.This is an amazing book and a fast read. Give Cat's Cradle a shot if you have the chance: you won't regret it!
Book Review: A funny quick read, but not as much depth
Summary: 3 Stars
Cat's Cradle is the story of a reporter chasing down the family and friends of a one of the "fathers" of the nuclear bomb. The story takes him to a impoverished remote island that has developed its own religion that everyone practices but no one admits to.
Vonnegut has a hilarious narrative style as always and goes into the fantastic and absurd by the last half of the novel. I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a quick read (especially on an airplane, since some of the best parts take place in the friendly skies). Though it isn't his best, Vonnegut doesn't provide the social commentary that something like God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.
Book Review: A history of human stupidity
Summary: 5 Stars
"Cat's Cradle" is a heavy-handed satire about the military-industrial complex using brilliant scientific minds to create weapons of mass destruction, but because it's written by the inimitable Kurt Vonnegut, you get a cleverly conceived tale of science fiction delivered with the comical madness of a Marx Brothers movie. This novel is pure fun even at its apocalyptic extreme. The narrator ("Jonah," as in trapped in the belly of a whale) is a journalist who plans to write a book about August 6, 1945, the day the first atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. Particularly he is interested in the life of the late Dr. Felix Hoenikker, one of the principal scientists who worked on the bomb. After corresponding with Hoenikker's midget son Newt, he interviews fellow scientists at Hoenikker's place of employment, a think tank called the General Forge and Foundry Company. Jonah learns that one of the last things Hoenikker was working on was something called "ice-nine," a substance which freezes water at temperatures much higher than 32°F.
Then Jonah gets an assignment to interview a philanthropist named Julian Castle who runs a charity hospital on a Caribbean island called San Lorenzo. On the plane to San Lorenzo, Jonah happens to meet Newt and his horse-faced sister Angela who are on their way to the same destination to attend the wedding of their brother Frank, who happens to be a high-ranking official on the island, to a beautiful native girl named Mona, the adopted daughter of "Papa" Monzano, the island's dictator.
Arriving at San Lorenzo, Jonah finds out that all the islanders practice an outlawed religion called Bokononism, started by a calypso singer named Bokonon. Bokononism is in a constant state of development as its founder thinks of new things to write about, but its main attribute seems to be a sort of shoulder-shrugging fatalism supported by well-meaning but useless aphorisms, a playful lexicon, and a bizarre foot ritual. Frank offers Jonah the Presidency of San Lorenzo upon Monzano's imminent death, simply because no one else wants the job. Unfortunately, a few stray samples of ice-nine and an ill-fated air show spell disaster for not only Jonah's lucrative new position, but the world.
Note the modern implications of what the defense industry today calls "technology transfer" -- sure, ice-nine kills every living thing that touches it, but it has practical uses like solidifying muddy roads for military operations. As Vonnegut feels that writers are society's canaries in a coal mine, this novel is like a big red flashing warning signal to the powers that be, not that they'd heed it, and besides, it's too late already. What else is there to do but laugh?
Book Review: A must for Vonnegut fans
Summary: 4 Stars
An easy read that led to Vonnegut's Anthropology B.A. The story evokes questions regarding mankind's ignorance when faced with scientific achievement.