Rating: 
Summary: So it goes.
Review: If you are expecting a 'traditional' Vonnegut novel, this book will disappoint. As a book of 'summings up' and farewell to readers it scores very high. Try not to judge Timequake compared to your favorite Vonnegut book. It will make you laugh, should make you think, and, if like me the thought of no future Vonnegut novels saddens you, perhaps make you cry.
Rating: 
Summary: FAR FROM BRILLIANT
Review: WHAT CAN I SAY? IT'S JUST NOT FRESH ANY MORE. TIMEQUAKE ANNOYED ME, THOUGH NOT FOR THE SAME REASONS AS SOME OF THE OTHER REVIEWERS. NO, THE PROBLEM I SAW WAS THAT VONNEGUT SEEMED CONTENT TO REPEAT, LINE FOR LINE, THE IDEAS PRESENTED IN HIS 1992 BIO "FATES WORSE THAN DEATH." IT'S ONE THING TO ADD PERSONAL MEMOIRS TO ONE'S WORK(LIKE MANY OTHER REVIEWERS, I THOUGHT "BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS WAS BRILLIANT), BUT QUITE ANOTHER TO PLAGIARIZE ONESSELF TO FILL DEAD SPACE WHEN HAVING DIFFICULTY THINKING UP NEW FICTIONAL IDEAS.
I WANTED THIS BOOK TO BE BRILLIANT, AND PERHAPS MY HIGH HOPES DIDN'T ALLOW ME THE ENJOYMENT I WOULD HAVE HAD OTHERWISE. REGARDLESS, I STILL HAVE TO RANK THIS ONE AMONG VONNEGUT'S WORST EFFORTS, RIGHT DOWN THERE WITH "DEADEYE DICK" AND "JAILBIRD" IN HIS LATE 70'S/EARLY 80'S DOWNTURN. DO NOT BUY TIMEQUAKE UNLESS YOU'RE A HARDCORE FAN.
Rating: 
Summary: The world will miss the work of the legendary Kurt Vonnegut
Review: I admit, that I was a little disappointed with Timequake. I was thrilled about reading a novel dealing with Kilgore Trout. I quickly learned that the book had very little to do with Trout. Instead I got a novel about an even more exciting character, that being Vonnegut himself. I have read now ten of Kurt's novels and while I wouldn't consider Timequake to be in the league of Slaughter House or Hocus Pocus it is still a very worthy effort. True fans of Vonnegut the writer and Vonnegut the man will like Timequake. I'll really miss counting down the days until Kurt's next novel.
Rating:
Summary: It's no Breakfast of Champions...but it IS Vonnegut.
Review: And so it goes. I always like Vonnegut better when he wraps up his musings in at least the semblence of a plot, but there is really none to be found here outside of a few choice Kilgore Trout outlines. What we do have is a bit of cosmic indifference: It's around ty2k, and the universe decides it's had it with expanding and retracts a bit, then changes it's mind yet again and decides expansion was the way to go...forcing everyone on Earth to relive the final decade of the millennium over again. What this allows KV to do is relive HIS life over again. We get more (and familiar) stories of his brother Bernard the scientist (and recently deceased), his sister Anne, his mother, father, grandfather, uncles...the entire Vonnegut family tree is shaken, and as usual a lot of nuts fall out. But the book truly comes alive towards the end, as the repeated decade comes to a close and the world sinks into chaos when people try to remember what free will was all about. And while the biographical stuff may be ground we've already covered before, the novel still resonates with Vonnegut's patented touching yet hilariously cynical view of life and the big-brained bags of water who are cursed to live it. Again.
Rating:
Summary: Hilarious, touching
Review: With the 21st century staring us in the face, and with our heads continually being handed to us with tweezers, we need writers like Kurt Vonnegut more than ever. Timequake, which is among other things one of the funniest novels I've ever read, is a rallying cry against an impersonal, soulless age; indeed, it seems part of his own soul died with his brother Bernard. Will we heed Vonnegut's warning and turn away from the TV long enough to regain our humanity? Not a chance. Ting-a-ling!
Rating:
Summary: Ting-a-ling.
Review: I took this book with me to Tralfamadore. It calmed me on some of the lonelier nights. Whether it reflects reality or not somehow, to me, seems irrelevant. Somehow, after reading it, I felt as though somebody, somewhere, still remembered how to love, despite the pain. Who can ask for more?
Rating:
Summary: Vonnegut at his best!
Review: Pretending not to be a novel, this is a masterpiece of one. With laugh out loud humor, Vonnegut does not hold back on the Big Ideas, clearing up everything from God, Evil, Free Will and the Meaning of Life and on to lesser subjects such as What is Art. Lots of great new incites and encouragement. I loved it!
Rating: 
Summary: Don't judge a book by the jacket notes
Review: This book is the perfect reason not to read the notes on the inside of the dust jacket to determine if it's any good ... it sounded good ... it's not. Vonnegut keeps referring to an imaginary "Timequake One" which he didn't like and threw away claiming that he saved the "best parts" to include in this book. He should have kept "Timequake One" and tossed this. So much for going out on a high note.
Rating:
Summary: A Fine Farewell
Review: Truthfully, I was hoping for a novel, a last hurrah with Vonnegut as one of the characters, ala "Breakfast of Champions." So I was slightly annoyed during the first few chapters, even though I was laughing out loud. But once I got comfortable with the fact that this is more a memoir than a fiction, I couldn't put it down. As Vonnegut says in the book, people like to know who it is that is creating the art they enjoy. That's part of the game. Vonnegut has always let us in, always shared himself almost in equal measure with his creations; his creations are richer for it. This book is a heartfelt letter from an old friend: still making me laugh, still touching in his humanity, still stubbornly trying to be decent in an indecent world. In the first chapter, he says " . . . a plausible mission of artists is to make people appreciate being alive at least a little bit. I am then asked if I know of any artists who pulled that off. I reply, 'The Beatles did.'" So has Kurt Vonnegut.
Rating:
Summary: Excellent, surprisingly solid.
Review: I am in such admiration of Kurt Vonnegut with the publication of this book. I have never heard any artist, writer, or musician acknowledge that they knew full well they were out of their prime, until reading Timequake. Surely the only way to avoid drying up and being pigeonholed as a an old washed up fart is to write a book like this: to break up what certainly would have made a bad novel into a part essay, part memoir, part jokebook. Simply to write what he wanted to. If he had written the novel, it would have sucked, we know it and he does too. What we have instead is something much more rewarding and much more relevant to Vonnegut's lifework. Very well done, very hilarious, and very brave. I know very well that the worst art in the world is done by artists out of their heyday, but Vonnegut has somehow sidestepped this scar. Wow? Yes.
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