Cat's Cradle

eBook

English language

Published Dec. 4, 2010 by RosettaBooks.

ISBN:
978-0-7953-0272-5
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If any single novel of Kurt Vonnegut's can represent his unique voice and freewheeling imagination, it is probably the wildly funny and provocative Cat's Cradle, published in 1963. Though it might not be his most substantial or popular novel, Cat's Cradle is a perfect vehicle for his idiosyncratic style and his kaleidoscopic view of the modern world.The story unfolds from the point of view of a narrator, who, in preparing to write a book, wants to know what some famous Americans were up to the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He learns that, on that very day, Dr. Felix Hoenikker—an absent-minded professor who was the erstwhile "father of the atomic bomb"—was uncharacteristically playing with string, making a cat's cradle and terrifying his young son by showing the boy his creation and speaking to him for the first time. Years later, the grown-up Hoenikker children are the key …

37 editions

Great but not good or maybe the other way around

This is frequently how I feel about vonnegut: he has an incredibly unique voice and is amazing at crafting sentences that hit just right.

But I also don't get a lot out of it. Women are almost always non-characters and I find it distracting. I see the cleverness in the setups but feel bored waiting for the punchlines, like I caught the magician setting up for the trick when I wasn't supposed to.

I don't regret reading this book but I also can't really imagine revisiting it.

Astute

My copy of Cat's Cradle was audio from Audible, narrated by Tony Roberts. I'm sure that there's still more layers to this novel that passed me by, but I enjoyed its wicked humour and sharp observations of human behaviour. The storyline is wonderfully outlandish and I would be interested to know if the science of Ice Nine is even feasible? However, it is the calypsos of the Bokononist faith that I think will be the most memorable for me. The astute comments on religion, power, learning and life are so true.

Выдатна

Перачытаў. Тыя ж 5 зорак, што і было, было б больш, паставіў бы больш. Роўна 60 год пасля выданьня кнігі, якая пачынаецца з атамнага бамбаваньня Хірасімы і заканчваецца глябальнай экалягічнай катастрофай, створанай чалавекам, here we are, недзе паміж пагрозай ядзернай вайны і напаўнепазьбежнай экалягічнай катастрофай. Кніга каб спыніцца, адысьці трошкі ў бок і паглядзець на чалавецтва звонку і зразумець, колькі ў ім вар'яцтва і абсурду, колькі складаных стварэньняў, якія як тая гульня ў вяровачку - no damn cat, no damn cradle. Але некаторым з нас пры гэтым пашчасціла ўсё гэта назіраць як разумным істотам, таму напрыканцы мы мабыць пасьпеем яшчэ задраць нос шырока ўхмыляючыся перад тварам няіснага бога, які і стварыў на імгненьне ўсю гэтую хісткую канструкцыю ў сябе на пальцах. А мабыць не.

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