Cat’s Cradle

by Kurt Vonnegut (1963)

5/10

Out of Vonnegut’s three most famous works — Slaughterhouse-Five, The Sirens of Titan and this one — this has been the least memorable to me in the 20 years or so since I first read it. I basically only remembered Ice-Nine. Re-reading it now I understand why: the style is so breezy, the pace so rapid-fire and the characters so thin that nothing really makes an impression. Everything is surface-level. Nothing penetrates. The philosophy is intriguingly misanthropic, and interesting to consider in relation to his “Church of God the Utterly Indifferent” from just a few years prior. But again the rest of the book doesn’t really facilitate one pondering it (or anything) all that much. Overall this is not even a top-3 Vonnegut book for me (Mother Night is better), and it highlights one of Vonnegut’s greatest weaknesses (poor character development). Good to read just for the cultural references I suppose, and yes the ending is still pretty perfect.