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Timequake

Timequake

List Price: $150.00
Your Price: $150.00
Product Info Reviews

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Rating: 2 stars
Summary: If this isn't bad, what is?
Review: I have only read Slaughterhouse-5 before I read this (i.e. not a die-hard fan), so I may not be in the target group for Timequake. Anyway, I felt the book didn't have a real story, it was just independent thoughts wrapped together in a nice package.

It would have been more interesting to read Timequake one

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A Farewell
Review: After scanning the list of reviews, I read only those critical of the book. I understood What the positive without reading them. The negative reviews all shared a common theme. They wanted Slaughterhouse Five or Breakfast of Champions. That's not what he wrote. He was saying good bye and doing so on his terms, knowing that he at may have stayed too long at the dance. Accept the book for what it is, a giant leaving his final footprints in the sand. It couldn't have been done better. I laughed loudly and wept quietly and found it all worth saying

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: hardly a wasted word
Review: On the plane to Montana and back, I read Vonnegut's new (and last?) book, Timequake. I gotta say, he's a sweet sad sharp-eyed man, and so is his book. It's a quick read, and for me it was a great pleasure. It rambles and just barely manages to have a plot, but there's hardly a wasted word.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A fine goodbye
Review: I enjoyed it, and got out of it what I expected: the musings of an old man that realizes all too well he's almost dead, but with the Vonnegut flare. He hasn't changed at all, and remains as dark as ever. A must read if you've ever been a Vonnegut fan. He says goodbye on his terms.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: A must for any Vonnegut reader.
Review: Slightly autobiographical, Timequake displays Vonnegut's style in rare form. His sympathetic methods of writing have spun off a tale of his life gone awry from the conflict between nostalgic remembraance of the past and the ultimate inevitability of moving into the future. Tragic and humorous, this Vonnegut book shines, making us reflect, laugh, and have pity for a doomed planet Earth.

Rating: 2 stars
Summary: Disappointing
Review: I'm surprised at how many extremely positive reviews were provided by other readers. It must be the same phenomenon that led to lifetime achievement awards being granted to Eric Clapton and Clint Eastwood in their respective fields.

Contrary to the media reviews, this is not a rescued novel that is part memoir. It is almost entirely a memoir with a little bit of a story thrown in here and there for the hell of it (or for want of not wasting his failed novel.)

Having read and enjoyed just about everything he has written, I'm not surprised at what some readers termed as the "morose" quality of the book. Strong cynicism is what Vonnegut has always been about and it is, in my opinion, one of his most endearing qualities. So it is not that that bothered me. It was more the feeling I had, as I read this book, that I had been duped by all the hype into thinking I had actually bought a novel.

The most disturbing thing about this book, was that the lit! tle semblance of story it did possess was merely a tired rehashing of themes he has already developed and presented over and over again in past novels. There was really nothing new added here. In the end, that made it tend toward the tedious. Basically, this book wouldn't have been published if had been written by anyone who was not already a proven draw.

I think he should have stopped at Bluebeard, which was a wonderful parable of his own life as an artist and would have been a perfect last novel.

Rating: 3 stars
Summary: Typical Vonnegut, but mostlyy a 200 pg. Bitching contest.
Review: I enjoyed this novel very much, although I found vonnegut to be in rare form for his wit, I found his over statement of his political, social, and religious views tiresome. It lacked the subtlety of his past novels. I am a big fan of his work and will continue to read anything he puts out.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Fabulous Perspective
Review: One of the only Vonnegut novels I have ever read and I have to say it is on of the BEST novels I have ever read. An interesting idea to begin with, Vonnegut introduces his wit and life experience cleverly while managing not to sound like a preacher or your dad. Everyone wonders about the universe, and this gave me yet another idea of what might happen, or happen twice. Although sad and confusing at times, this novel flows seamlessly and speak intelligently to an open mind.

Rating: 5 stars
Summary: God Bless You Mr. Vonnegut
Review: Having read all of Kurt Vonnegut's works, I found this final "chapter" in his career to be satisfying. Like most of Vonnegut's ventures, this one contains recurring themes that tie into other novels. The reader would do himself a great service by reading Vonnegut's other works and saving this one for last (as Kurt intended). I enjoyed while at the same time grieving the end of Vonnegut's career.

Rating: 4 stars
Summary: Clever and uplifting.
Review: In his own distinct way, Kurt Vonnegut has written the definitive work on the joys of child-like innocence and taking delight in being in the world. Without being at all saccharin or preaching, the combination of stream of consciousness and vignettes attributed to the redoubtable Kilgore Trout reach a critical mass of bemusement and wonder. One of the recurring themes is that the hallmark of a great accomplishment (and a great spirit) is that, having completed the work (whatever it is), the doer stands back and exclaims in wonder, "How the hell did I do that?" Surely, Mr. Vonnegut, at the age of 74, is entitled to peruse the body of his work and ask the same question. After raising our collective consciousness in the 60's, he now raises our spirits - and just in the nick of time. Another useful and pertinent quote, "If this isn't nice, what is?"


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