Timequake

Rating:
Summary: Vonnegut has done MUCH Better
Review: Alright. I know that you think Vonnegut is the greatest writer in the universe. That all of his work is great. Well true he has alot of great novels under his belt, but some novels just suck. When I got timequake i was really looking forward to it. I know Vonnegut to be great at Science Fiction. (see Sirens of Titan) But In this book he would be writing about Trout going around telling everyone they had free will again and they can be free (Of course happening when the post-timequake-apathy sets in) But then Vonnegut will go WAY off subject and tell us stories about his sister or brother or John Wilks Booth, and then remember he was actally writing a novel which was supposed to have a plot. If you took out all these stories, you would have about ten pages about a timequake. Still I think this is mildly entertaining and is worth a read... but only when there is not a scrap of Vonnegut you have not read yet. The only reason it got published was because it is Vonnegut's last. And Let's all thank God for that. Hi-Ho.

Rating:
Summary: Vonnegut is a master story teller
Review: This book was hilarious and full of interesting insites by the author and his fiction self Kilgore Trout. Worth a read, I luved it.

Rating:
Summary: Fantastic as usual
Review: I discovered Kurt Vonnegut in 11th grade when we had to do projects on contemporary american literature. I have been hooked on him ever since. I have read about six of his books and make myself like them even though a few have not been that well done. This is one of the latest of his books that I have read and I love it. It is not about anything in particular but instead is a fragmented account of many of his experiences and his life in general. Many believe that this will be his last book and we won't be left with a real autobiography. I recommend this book to all fans of Kurt Vonnegut's work. This book is, at times, hilarious and at others very sad. Beware it might set you close to tears.

Rating:
Summary: You have to love this book
Review: If you like Vonnegut you have to read this book. I have been a Kurt Vonnegut fan for years now and waited with eager anticipation for each new book. This being his farewell book brings to an end a great era in literature. I am afraid to give away too much about this book, but at the end of the book he tells a story about his uncle that was hilarious. What is most touching is at the end of te book when he discusses his family. If you are any sort of Vonnegut fan that story alone is worth reading the book.

Rating:
Summary: Good, but not a novel
Review: I enjoyed reading this book, but it was by no means a novel. It mostly consisted of Vonnegut writing what was going to be in "Timequake One". It was entertaining, as all of his work is, but don't read it expecting a novel.

Rating:
Summary: KV back in a big way
Review: Vonnegut uses several methods in this book. You would think it would work into an unreadable hodgepodge, but quite the opposite is true. He uses references to Timequake I, the first book he supposedly wrote on a "quake" in time that takes everyone back approximately ten years. The fact that the timequake is off by a couple of weeks is, I guess, just another of the vagaries of the universe. Actually, according to the introduction, Timequake I was the first draft of this book.

Therer are also auto-biographical sections. It's hard to tell if he's actually telling stories about his life, or if he's making it up. It doesn't really matter, though. They're all so good.

Another viewpoint is provided by his alter-ego, the science fiction writer.

Chapters are short, some Very Short, and Timequake is altogether very readable and enjoyable.

Rating:
Summary: ok
Review: I enjoyed the book, but it was not his best effort. I have read many other books that dealt with time issues much better.

Rating:
Summary: Self-indulgent drivel
Review: My title for this review says it all.

Rating:
Summary: A Book That Deserves To Be Read
Review: This was a friggin' great book. It's not one that stirs the deep intellectual in a person but if you enjoy sarcasim and babbling on this is the book for you. I won't say it has no plot but it's not about the timequake. If you liked well organized and structured books, you should just burn this one because this book is far from it.

So if you are in the mood for crude humor and a totally new way at looking at ordinary things this is the book for you.

Rating:
Summary: Strictly speaking - entertainment
Review: Strictly speaking, this isn't a proper Kurt Vonnegut novel (in the sense that it isn't a fully-imagined novel with proper imagined characters and story and events - not that Vonnegut believes in any of that hokum anyway and neither should you, but that is besides the point right now): this is more like the post-mortem of a Kurt Vonnegut novel (which, in a way, it is). Strictly speaking, even by Vonnegut's impeccably high standards, "Timequake" is something of an oddity.

The post mortem. According to who you speak to, "Timequake" could have taken ten years to write. Apparently the book was abandoned. Vonnegut started over. Throughout "Timequake", he refers to "Timequake 1". In point of fact, "Timequake" should be called "Timequake 2". You get the impression (from what the narrator says - we'll get to that in a minute) that "Timequake 1" was probably more straightfowardly novel-y than the version of "Timequake" you hold in your hand. Perhaps there has to be a timequake of some kind for all of this to make sense.

For the record. The events of the novel. There is a timequake in February 2001 that sends all of the inhabitants of Earth back in time by ten years. Everybody has to go through the motions and repeat what they did - precisely what they did, to the letter - again, until free will resumes (at the second February 2001). However, when free will resumes there is chaos because everybody forgot - over the course of the repeated ten years - what it was to have free will.

There is no narrator (unless you count Kurt - in the flesh, munching and ruminating - as the narrator). After all this time, he probably figures what the heck. They're all versions of me, anyway. He also refers to the practice of writing (acknowledging, perhaps bizarrely, within the confines of the novel that Kilgore Trout, his fictional alter-ego, performs the function of allowing Vonnegut to offload short story ideas he can no longer be bothered to write) in a way he hasn't before.

Aside of the action (or non-action) of the novel itself, the book is a space in which Vonnegut breathes his life now (it gets better second or third time through - it's like listening to the cracked leather of a wheezy old accordion): he tells you about his late sister, Allie, his brother who is dying of cancer, his grandkids who call him Junior. He tells you about books he has read and people he has met. He tells you what he thinks of Heaven. He talks about the war. He tells you that he thinks this will be his last book (apparently it isn't - hurrah!). There is terrific, bright wisdom here and (much-maligned, unfairly-maligned word this, but:) ENTERTAINMENT. Which is good. If only everybody sought to entertain. What a wonderful world it would be.