Cat's Cradle: A Novel
One of Vonnegut's major works, this is an apocalyptic tale of the planet's ultimate fate, featuring a cast of unlikely heroes.Product Details
Editorial Reviews
Amazon.com Review
Cat's Cradle, one of Vonnegut's most entertaining novels, is filled with scientists and G-men and even ordinary folks caught up in the game. These assorted characters chase each other around in search of the world's most important and dangerous substance, a new form of ice that freezes at room temperature. At one time, this novel could probably be found on the bookshelf of every college kid in America; it's still a fabulous read and a great place to start if you're young enough to have missed the first Vonnegut craze.
Review
"A free-wheeling vehicle.... An unforgettable ride!" -- The New York Times.
"Vonnegut's most accomplished novel." -- Books And Bookman -- Review
Review
"A free-wheeling vehicle.... An unforgettable ride!" -- The New York Times.
"Vonnegut's most accomplished novel." -- Books And Bookman
Customer Reviews
A funny quick read, but not as much depth
Cat's Cradle is the story of a reporter chasing down the family and friends of a one of the "fathers" of the nuclear bomb. The story takes him to a impoverished remote island that has developed its own religion that everyone practices but no one admits to.
Vonnegut has a hilarious narrative style as always and goes into the fantastic and absurd by the last half of the novel. I would recommend this book for anyone looking for a quick read (especially on an airplane, since some of the best parts take place in the friendly skies). Though it isn't his best, Vonnegut doesn't provide the social commentary that something like God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.
Flawed Digital Edition
When I got my Kindle I quickly decided that a Vonnegut novel would be the first thing I read, like christening a new ship. "Cat's Cradle" is a superb book, and it remains one of my favorites even 30 years after I first read it. This digital edition, however, needs some heavy proofing by a copy editor. In most-- if not all!-- instances, trailing double quote marks do not immediately follow the final letter or punctuation mark. Instead, they are shifted one space to the right and appear before the first letter of the next word. This frequently gives the appearance of a new character speech, when the author intends only narrative. This is compounded by the author's own use of the word 'Papa' in double quotes. The problem is not a deal killer, but it causes the reader to back up and re-read many sentences to get them back into the proper context, thus yanking the reader frequently out of the story being spun.
5-star book brought back one star due to a bad digital conversion.
astounding writing, hard to swallow..
this is a technically astounding book - vonnegut weaves his expansive brain-popping creativity into a drum-tight roller-coaster narrative about the end of the world. along the way he invents a fundamentally paradoxical, fascinating, and genuinely alluring religion (bokononism).. and the book is hilarious (!)
the downside for me *was* an apocalyptic tale *told* entirely in the past-tense - creating a know-it-all tone more relevant in 1963 than it is in 2009 - when we have all the world's major religions, environmentalists, politicians, economists, energy companies, investment bankers, newscasters, etc weaving drum-tight apocalypse narratives for us on a daily basis. the know-it-all tone and cynical humor only exacerbate each other. if kurt saw our potential doom in 1963 (both actually and tense-wise), maybe he could have set his astounding creativity on an escape hatch or two?
in the entire book, the only present-tense verbiage i find is reserved for bokononisn.. eg: "the first sentence in the books of bokonon is this: 'all of the true things i am about to tell you are shameless lies.'" (p13)
draw your own conclusions..
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