Although this book was compiled in 1999, it contains the author’s early short stories, published in magazines in the 1950s and ’60s. It was not an easy or a fast book to read but it was powerful and it made an impression. I won’t re-read it; it didn’t give me much pleasure, which is why 4 stars instead of 5 stars, but I’ll remember it. The stories are all about a small man in America. A couple stories have a scifi slant, but their speculative flavor is unimportant. The spotlight in all the stories is on a real man in the real postwar USA. No stories deal with a female protagonist, and most males on display are so life-like and pathetic, it hurts to read about them. Literary recognition is seldom pretty. All the human foibles – greed, vanity, ambition, envy, misplaced loyalties – and all the vulnerabilities – loneliness, ignorance, shyness – are bared to the readers. There are no heroes or villains in this book but lots of silly men, misunderstood men, and presumptuous men. Some want to pay the world for ignoring them. Others are resigned to their fate, which is much, much smaller than they had dreamed about. ‘The shattered dreams of America’ could be a subtitle for this book, which includes stories sad and funny, tragic and twisted, but beyond all, believable. It could’ve been me (well, not me, I’m a woman). It could’ve been you or your cousin or your classmate. It’s about us.And we are as different as the heroes of these stories. Some of them are extremely narrow-minded but come to realize and regret their own pettiness. Others are absorbed in their work to the detriment of the living people around them. Still others are making mistakes but not making connections. The theme of misunderstanding – between fathers and sons, wives and husbands, teachers and students – runs through the stories like a binding thread. I made a conscious decision not to comment on any particular story, but I’d like to mention one character, a high school music teacher. He appears in three stories and he is probably the most likable of the protagonists in this book, at least for me. His passion for music is rich and rewarding, but his blindness to the human needs of his students is appalling. He is made of contradictions, like all the other characters in the book. The introduction by the author is just as fascinating as the stories. In it, he talks about the origins of this collection, about his checkered life and literary career, and about the present times (1999) which was so different and so similar to the times he wrote about. He writes about Ray Bradbury: Fahrenheit 451 was published before we and most of our neighbors in Osterville owned TVs. Ray Bradbury himself may not have owned one. He still may not own one. To this day, Ray can’t drive a car and hates to ride in airplanes.In any case, Ray was sure as heck prescient. Just as people with dysfunctional kidneys are getting perfect ones from hospitals nowadays, Americans with dysfunctional social lives, like the woman in Ray’s book, are getting perfect friends and relatives from their TV sets. And around the clock!Ray missed the boat about how many screens would be required for a successful people-transplant. One lousy little Sony can do the job, night and day. All it takes besides that is actors and actresses, telling the news, selling stuff, in soap operas or whatever, who treat whoever is watching, even if nobody is watching, like family.“Hell is other people,” said Jean-Paul Sartre. “Hell is other real people,’ is what he should have said. What a pessimistic outlook at our lives. And so close to home, I want to curse. Vonnegut also gives here, in the introduction to this book, his famous 8 rules of writing fiction: 1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.4. Every sentence must do one of two things—reveal character or advance the action.5. Start as close to the end as possible.6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them—in order that the reader may see what they are made of.7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the world, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages. He also admits that most good writers break most of his rules, except maybe the rule #1. This book didn’t break that rule.One critic called Vonnegut “the Mark Twain of our times.” I agree.
Creative Writing 101:1. Use the time of a total stranger in such a way that he or she will not feel the time was wasted.2. Give the reader at least one character he or she can root for.3. Every character should want something, even if it is only a glass of water.4. Every sentence must do one of two things-reveal character or advance the action.5. Start as close to the end as possible.6. Be a sadist. No matter how sweet and innocent your leading characters, make awful things happen to them-in order that the reader may see what they are made of.7. Write to please just one person. If you open a window and make love to the worls, so to speak, your story will get pneumonia.8. Give your readers as much information as possible as soon as possible. To heck with suspense. Readers should have such complete understanding of what is going on, where and why, that they could finish the story themselves, should cockroaches eat the last few pages.I might as well settle here as anywhere, since I haven't very strong reasons for living in any particular part of the country. 54Why don't you say, 'I am going to build a life for myself, for my time, and make it a work of art'? ... Design your life like that Finnish carafe over there clean, harmonious, alive with the cool, tart soul of truth in our time. 112As he walked up to Amy's small, ordinary house, he managed a smile of sad maturity, the smile of a man who has hurt and been hurt, who has seen everything, who has learned a great deal from it all, and who, incidentally, has made a lot of money along the way. 139He was being asked to match his father's passion for the factory with an equal passion for something else. And Franklin had no such passion-for the theater or anything else.He had nothing but the bittersweet, almost formless longings of youth. 206He wanted to cray about growing old, about the shabby ends brave young lovers came to. 224One of the worst mistakes a person can makes, sometimes, I guess, is to try to get away from people and think. It's a great way to lose your forward motion. 238From what I've seen of the rich people I grew up with, money just makes people worried and unhappy. People with a lot of money get so worried about how maybe they'll lose it, they forget to live. 254If we should try to prove our love,Our love would be in danger.Let's put our love beyond all harm.Good-bye - sweet, gentle stranger. 257The world could do with a good deal more mess, if you ask me. 262I guess the world seems so upside down so often is that everybody figures he's doing things on account of somebody else. 279Housewifery is a swindle, if a woman can do more. 279Women are awful bluffers sometimes. 279What (creative writing) students wanted and got, and what so many of their children are getting, was a cheap way to externalize what was inside them, to see in black-and-white who they were and what they might become. 290
What do You think about Bagombo Snuff Box (2015)?
تو دهه پنجاه و اوایل دهه شصت میلادی، وونهگات برای مجلات و روزنامهها داستان کوتاه مینوشته. بعد از شهرتی که به واسطه رمانهاش به دست میاره، سراغ داستانهای اون دورهش میرند و یه منتخبی از اون داستانها رو تو کتاب به خانه میمون خوش آمدید چاپ میکنند. داستانهایی که تو این کتاب اومده، باقی داستان کوتاههای وونهگاته که تو به خانه میمون خوش آمدید چاپ نشدند. داستانهایی که به قول خود وونهگات اگه شهرت رمانهاش نبود، هیچوقت کسی سراغشون نمیرفت. داستانها در کل ضعیفند. خیلی از داستانها رسما رو پایهی نتیجه اخلاقی بنا شدند. اون چند تا داستانی هم که سوژه جالبی داشتند رو پایان عجولانه خراب کرده. به زحمت تونستم کتاب رو تموم کنم. هر بار کتاب رو برمیداشتم، امیدوارانه یه داستانش رو میخوندم، ناامیدم میکرد تا بار بعد که برم سراغش.کتاب ۳۹۶ صفحهست با قطع پالتویی و قیمت ۷۰۰۰ تومن که به نظرم بخاطر همین قیمت نامعقولشه که انقدر کم خونده شده. من هم خوشبختانه این ولخرجی رو نکردم و کتاب رو هدیه گرفتم.
—Hamid
Did you like "Slaughter House Five" and "Cat's Cradle"? Were you like me and totally blown away by the 4th wall breaking in "Breakfast Of Champions"? Well then scale back your expectations before you crack open "Bagombo Snuff Box".These are stories written back in Vonnegut's magazine days, and as such are far more reserved than the stories he would later become a legend for.Not to deny it's good qualities. For Vonnegut completists it's a fascinating collection, and for fans of short fiction it has plenty of gems, but betrayed expectations often make fans angrier than an actual lack of good craftsmanship.The awkward part for me was the introduction, where Vonnegut complained about the way the magazine industry changed due to the rise of television. Ranting about the idiot-box was a passe old man activity by the 80's, and reading it in a book released in 2000 made my eye roll a bit in spots. Even if someone's a genius, I'm still not that wild about hearing nostalgic rantings about the way things used to be.
—Nicholas Karpuk
This was the first collection of Vonnegut's short stories I ever read- some time back in 2002, I think. I still think it is his best collection, though I have about three more to read before I make up my mind permanently. By far, this is his most traditional and direct writing, and it is still as highly enjoyable as his bizarre and postmodern output. The Breakdown:"Thanasphere" - A+"Mneumonics" - C-"Any Reasonable Offer" - A+"The Package" - A+"The No-Talent Kid" - B+"Poor Little Rich Town" - B+"Souvenir" - A"The Cruise of the Jolly Roger" - B-"Custom-Made Bride" - B"Ambitious Sophomore" - A-"Bagombo Snuff Box" - B+"The Powder-Blue Dragon" - A-"A Present for Big Saint Nick" - A"Unpaid Consultant" - C"Der Arme Dolmetscher" - B-"The Boy Who Hated Girls" - A-"This Son of Mine" - A+"A Night For Love" - A"Find Me a Dream" - A"Runaways" - A+"2BR02B" - A+"Lovers Anonymous" - B-"Hal Irwin's Magic Lamp" - A
—Chickens McShiterson
