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After years of having friends attempt to prod me into picking up something of his, this was my very first venture into the works of Vonnegut. I'm not quite sure how I feel about it. Don't get me wrong; I enjoyed it very much, and his deadpan humour and implied wry smiles all the way through never failed to make me shake my head...however, I have one major complaint; Vonnegut had obviously championed the art of candid-but-not-quite-stream-of-consciousness narrative-writing, long before I was even born, and this is frustrating, as, while reading this, I couldn't help but think, "There is nothing complex about this guy's writing." And that's just it: it is incredibly simple. AND incredibly brilliant. And this is exactly what is frustrating to aspiring writers like myself - as much as we may try to conjure up complex structures and illusions, there is something beautiful (or ugly) and profound to be discovered within the utterly simplistic. Oh, and the whole - historical/autobiopic/sci-fi/ war recount thing is pretty neat. WWII and time/space travel.

2020-09-05 01:43