The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of The Sirens of Titan
Book Review: "The universe is a junk yard, with everything in it overpriced."
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the first novel I've read from Kurt Vonnegut and I'm hooked! While not gung go about science fiction, I appreciate his writing style and the way he made the story come together in the end.
While Winston Niles Rumfoord told Malachi Constant, the fortunate (only) son, about his destiny on Mars (that he was to have a son, Chrono, with his wife, Beatrice Rumfoord, there), we await to see exactly how they got over their loathing of each other long enough to produce a child. So while we're following the adventures of "Unk," waiting to see where Malachi is going to come in, it's only three quarters of the way into the novel that we realize that they're one and the same person.
As the "family" of Malachi, Beatrice, and Chrono leaves Earth one last time for Titan, Winston does them the favor of explaining everything in full detail to them - in front of the crowd - about who they were on Earth before their memories were cleaned out on Mars. None of them could have cared less (much less Chrono) but Malachi (the Space Wanderer, whose appearance on Earth was cause for much celebration) and Beatrice vowed to never again be used by Rumfoord.
It was pretty cool to see, in the end, how Malachi wound up missing Beatrice after she died on Titan. The three of them wound up caring about each other in their own way (even if Chrono wound up being way closer to his mother than he ever was with his father, something that Malachi came to accept).
The only bad thing (if you can call it that) was that I was disappointed to not see Winston Niles Rumfoord really get his in the end. I think he completely got off the hook for sabotaging the Martian "invasion" of Earth, for engaging in erasing peoples' memories, and for just being a total jerk.
I'm sorry I didn't read this book sooner. Great piece of literature.
Book Review: God is an Indifferent Tralfamadorian
Summary: 5 Stars
*SPOILERS*
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There is something thrilling about reading Vonnegut, the plots and situations are so ludicrous and outlandish yet so delicately conceivable. As far as style goes I'd like to say he's a cross between Palahniuk and Orwell. He has the art of the quip down, but can actually deliver a full plot arch with detailed prose. He does so much with so little. His tiny novels speak volumes more than they should.
Just like with Slaughterhouse-Five I now find myself, having just put it down, searching for the missing piece that will align everything properly in my mind. I'm still searching for that with Slaughterhouse-Five, which I finished the first time well over a year ago.
The Sirens of Titan takes on something so vast that it's hard to get a solid grasp on it. Dealing with the true purpose for life on Earth is something that many authors try to expand to the level of arrogant size that we think it should be, but Vonnegut took the less traveled road. Vonnegut reduced the whole of human existence to the goal of a far off civilization trying to fix the ship of a messenger in order that he might deliver a one word message to the other side of the universe. The message was simply: Greetings. It's strange to think that all human life with all of its grand accomplishments was originally created for such pointlessness. By going on this voyage, lasting tens of billions of years, Salo, the Tralfamadorian, brought the greatest gift of greeting to our little solar system. He brought us life and the infinite ability to greet one another in whatever way we deem appropriate at any given moment.
This is the problem I find with Vonnegut books, as much as I love to think I simply don't have the time to stew over this any longer. There are so many questions: was this message of life the real intent of the original writers? Was it simply an unforeseeable byproduct of a much simpler idea? What the hell is a chrono-synclastic infundibula?
As it turns out Slaughterhouse-Five was actually written ten years after this book, so I guess this is where the Tralfamdorians originated in Vonnegut's writing. It's strange that in this book they are machines who only live in three dimensions when in Slaughterhouse-five they are organic and live in four. I guess they needed to serve a different purpose to Billy Pilgrim than they did to Malachi Constant or Winston Rumfoord.
Very strange book, but every bit as fantastic as I would have expected from Kurt Vonnegut. This book assures in my mind that Slaughterhouse-Five wasn't just a fluke, and a popular fluke at that, but was in fact another novel in the string that Vonnegut released during his writing days. I look forward to reading his others and recommend them to anyone with an interest in the absurd.
Book Review: I would give it 6 stars if possible...
Summary: 5 Stars
This is probably my favorite book of all time. I love how convoluted the story is at the beginning, and how it all ties together in the end. This book really lets you step back and think about what is going on in the world and the meaning (or more like meaninglessness) of everything. Regardless, check this book out. It is definitely better than Cat's Cradle and SlaughterhousE Five.Book Review: Salo, What have you done for me lately?
Summary: 5 Stars
This is just another testimony much like all the rest regarding the effect reading The Sirens of Titan can have on a person.
Ten years ago a friend lent me Galapagos. I only remember something about dancing blue-footed boobies. I liked it alright, but I never got into Vonnegut, at least not until now.
I am a fan of Thomas Pynchon, Tom Robbins, Haruki Murakami, Terence McKenna, Donald Antrim, Jim Dodge, and George Saunders. And TSOT fits right in.
Written in an unassuming, slippery yet vivid manner, novelty builds as the pages fly by. TSOT ends in a place so deeply affecting that it continues to roam around in my dreams, days after finishing it.
It is a completely satisfying read, lingering long after the last pages sadly and beautifully come to an end. Which is the beginning in a way, and where our world is today: sometime between World War II and the Third Great Depression--a time when people are only now beginning to discover portals to their souls--just in time to survive global extinction.
TSOT is a clever and ultimately hopeful arrangement of words and one of the few books I plan to revisit someday.
But for now, my thoughts, day and night, are flooded with the aftermath of reading such a woderful and moving book.
Book Review: Great read.
Summary: 5 Stars
I had to read this book as a requirement for my AP English IV course. I must say that Vonnegut does an extremely good job of explaining the meaning of life using the most finite, human terms possible. A great read for anybody.