Book Cover

“You are pooped and demoralized,” read Dwayne. “Why wouldn’t you be? Of course it is exhausting, having to reason all the time in a universe which wasn’t meant to be reasonable.”

# Review

This novel is my first foray into Vonnegut’s works. The story follows Dwayne Hoover, a successful car dealer who stumbles upon the works of the unsuccessful author Kilgore Trout.

The plot is nonsensical and serves as a vehicle for Vonnegut to sarcastically critique American society. Vonnegut’s tone throughout the novel is sardonic with a tinge of cynicism, and he covers some of the darkest facets of American society, from racism, to wealth inequality, to sexism. Mixed in with the oftentimes shocking anecdotes, are fourth wall-breaking borderline schizophrenic vulgar tangents such as pontificating about the penis sizes of different men.

As with all good works of social critique, Vonnegut doesn’t come off as prescriptive and the book is incredibly easy to read. While there are definitely uncomfortable subject matters such as violence, Vonnegut makes the majority of the book humorous with his casual tone and crudely-drawn sketches. One very interesting topic Vonnegut raises is the extent of humanity’s free will; are we nihilistic biological machines acting on the orders of good or bad chemicals or are we agents of our own destiny?

# Conclusion

A cynical story filled with wry humour.

# Overall rating: 8.0

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