Rating: 
Summary: As Vonnegut as Vonnegut gets.
Review: I've determined that the only logical action a decent human being can take after reading Kurt Vonnegut's new book "TIMEQUAKE" is to killhim or herself. Or to become like another Vonnegut creation, Eliot Rosewater, a man who loved everyone and devoted himself to making the livesof his fellow human beings a little less miserable, regardless of the troubles they may have caused him. Or, at the very least, to watch less television.
Rating:
Summary: Ting-a-ling!
Review: You were sick but now you're well again, and there's work to do ... Timequake is a book about a book, "Timequake One", sort of. Which is to say, Vonnegut uses the supposed book "Timequake" as reference material typically saying "I wrote in Timequake One" while filling the rest of the story with cynical bitterness and sarcastic commentary which is simultaneously hilarious and solemn. He threads the plot of Timequake (wherein the cast of the universe is forced to live ten years of their lives twice, the second "rerun" being on automatic pilot) through relentless commentary about our modern world pitting himself and his "alter-ego" out of print science fiction writer Kilgore Trout as main characters in what can be best described as part auto-biography, part fiction. As I read this book I found so much relevant in my day to day life I could hardly believe it. There are some real thought provoking criticisms of our modern world presented here. I like the frank style of writing, and I deeply appreciate Vonnegut's bitterly sarcastic musings: "Then again, I am a monopolar depressive descended from monopolar depressives. That's how come I write so good." Give us a break, Mr. Trout. READ IT.
Rating: 
Summary: Entertaining but Forgettable
Review: TimeQuake seems like Kurt Vonnegut's farewell to his readers. It is not a proper novel at all, but a mish-mash of an idea for a novel, various short stories by his alter-ego, Kilgore Trout, and recollections of Vonnegut's extended family. I listened to the audio version of this book on a long car trip, which was perfect, because there was no long plot to get lost in, merely a series of amusing anecdotes.
Rating: 
Summary: When is this rousseauist naif gonna shut up?
Review: Easily the worst fic since ... oh ... I'd have to go back to KID ANDREW CODY & JULIE SPARROW by Hollywood-legend Tony Curtis. There's one good quote: "Chicago is a better city than New York because Chicago has alleys. The garbage doesn't pile up on the sidewalks. Delivery vehicles don't block main thoroughfares."
Rating: 
Summary: Vonnegut has changed over all the years, but still great
Review: Many people seemed a little disappointed with this book because it just didn't "feel" like one of the classic Vonnegut books. That's fine though. He's been cranking out books for nearly half a century, and in the twilight of his career shouldn't he write a different book? I probably wouldn't recommend this book to be someone's first exposure to Kurt Vonnegut, but if you love his work then there is little doubt you will love this book.
He gives the readers even more random musings than usual, and also gives a lot more of his personal history than ever before. He discusses being a "humanist" in really one of the most simplest yet profound brief exchanges he has ever created. Some parts of the book almost feel like he just wants to throw in random thoughts or paragraphs that didn't have a proper home in past books. This really works, though. The odd structure of jumping back and forth time creates the perfect home in this book for all these thoughts.
If this is his last book, it's an interesting way to end it all and not a disappointment at all.
Rating:
Summary: Vonnegut does Postmodernism
Review: Vonnegut complains in this novel about how television and movies have drawn away potential readers of novels. Maybe that explains why the book is filled with hackneyed phrases ("Get this...", "The thing is..") and unfunny R rated humor and why phrases like Kilgore Trout's "The squeaky wheel gets the oil" is treated as if it were a clever phrase that he invented. We readers are such dolts after all that we would not appreciate an attempt at anything literary. In his deconstruction Vonnegut mixes biographical information with a novel within a novel about the timequake in the title, in which everyone is forced to relive the last ten years of their lives. In a monumenally lame attempt to make this interesting people experience the timequake on two levels. They get to do and feel everything that happened previously and they get to watch themselves doing it. For me this requires an impossible act of disbelief suspension. You cannot be a participant and a spectator at the same time. What keeps this book from being a complete disaster is the biographical information it provides and the skill used in weaving back and forth between fiction and reality. I would recommend this book to diehard Vonnegut fans, but it is not one of his better works.
Rating: 
Summary: Not so Hot
Review: It has been my experience that when you are reading Vonnegut lit, you have either picked up a hit or a miss. In the case ofr Timequake, you've picked up one of his misses, I am a true fan of this zany author, but this time his self "heoroizing" and annoying jargon got to my last nerve. I finished the book for the purpose of not wanting to finish it later, but it wasn't the best time i ever spent. All reading is good reading and this had it laughs and abstrack story lines, but all in all it was the worste book of Vonnegut's I've read. For the record i have read nearly ten, so i have so opinion on this.
|
