I love Kurt Vonnegut's writing style. Conversational yet artful- it sort of reminds me how I am when I try to tell someone a story, which is ass-backward and all over the place. When he does it though, it seems so perfect and well done and exactly how it should be. So I guess not at all how I tell a story...? You get the idea.
Deadeye Dick is, according to that link there, a "chillingly satirical look at the death of innocence. Amid a true Vonnegutian host of horrors—a double murder, a fatal dose of radioactivity, a decapitation, an annihilation of a city by a neutron bomb—Rudy Waltz, aka Deadeye Dick, takes us along on a zany search for absolution and happiness. Here is a tale of crime and punishment that makes us rethink what we believe . . . and who we say we are."
Basically, Rudy there makes a fatal mistake as a young boy and him and his family pay the price for that for the rest of their lives, all that within the larger context of the eventual destruction of his town and it's inhabitants.
Aside from the topics outlined in that description above, to me, one of the most interesting ideas he talks about is whether or not you're living your story, or living your epilogue. The idea is, stories are often contrived, made up, made purely to entertain someone else while the epilogue is the bit at the end that's meant to be about how the characters are getting on with their lives, not necessarily for entertainment but for closure. So your epilogue isn't just what happens at the end of your life but what happens when you start living for you, regardless how unexciting that may (or may not I guess) be. Some people start their epilogues early, some may not even have one.
A lot of Vonnegut novels, while depicting all sorts of misfortunes and horrors mankind inflicts upon itself, leave you with this weird sort of hope, that we could somehow turn it around. Deadeye Dick though... is not one of those novels. There's more what I would call a feeling of semi-content resignation. While this hasn't broken into my top three Vonnegut novels (Breakfast of Champions, Cat's cradle, and Timequake respectively), I'd still recommend it.
I started my next book the same day as I finished this one. Something nonfiction for once, and music related. I'm on a roll!
Star rating: 4/5
2021 book count: 2
I should really give Vonnegut another try - I attempted Slaughterhouse Five ages ago, and hated the writing, but my husband is a big fan and has many of his books.
ReplyDeleteI've read 4 or 5 books so far! I tend to read a lot more at this time of year, and it helps that I'm rereading Julian May's "The Pliocene Exile Saga" (all 8 or 9 books of it!). Easy reading.
Great to see you, Ashley!
I'd always suggest giving something a second chance but Vonnegut is definitely an acquired taste for most. If you really wanted to give him another go, I really liked Cat's Cradle- plus, it's short so not as much of a commitment for something you're not sure you'l like.
ReplyDeleteYou're definitely doing much better getting through books than me! Awesome!