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Title: Hocus Pocus by Kurt Vonnegut ISBN: 0-425-13021-5 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: November, 1991 Format: Mass Market Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $7.99 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.17 (46 reviews)
Rating: 4
Summary: Not as great as the classic Slaughterhouse 5
Comment: Although Hocus Pocus does not have the same quality of genius as Vonnegut's classic Slaughterhouse Five, I can assure Vonnegut fans that this similar attack on war (Vietnam, this time) will not disappoint. As in Slaughterhouse, the plot shifts back and forth to different locations and times: Vietnam during the war, a college for mentally challenged but privileged students, and a prison. The main character's acerbic wit is what carries the novel and is its most enjoyable feature. Anyone who appreciates Vonnegut's social commentaries will revel in the passages of Hocus Pocus that carry the reader on to the hilariously dark ending. Vonnegut has mastered his approach to science fiction/fantasy/war novels. Anyone who has not yet read a Vonnegut novel is missing out...
Rating: 5
Summary: SATIRE AT ITS BEST
Comment: Debs Hartke is a Vietnam Veteran, turned College Professor, turned Prison Warden, turned convict in this hillarious sattirical tale by Vonnegut. Although this novel doesnt get the attention of a BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS or SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE, it is just as worth the read.
Vonnegut uses the character of Hartke to chastise big government, big money, big media, and big egoes everywhere. Even if you dont agree with his assessment you cant help but laughing anyway.
Things just keep getting worse for Hartke as life goes along, he wanted to be a journalist who graduated from Michigan. Instead his father forces him to go to Westpoint and things snowball from there. He goes through Vietnam, he marries a woman that goes insane in her forties,..........and every moment is brilliantly written.
I recommend the book, I recommend the author. This will not be the last Vonnegut novel that I pick up.
Rating: 5
Summary: Great Book (And refutation to some reviws)
Comment: Let me first tell you that this is by far one of Vonnegut's best. The social commentary that is diguised in the form of satire is rather tremendous and poignant. It has definitely an anti-war flavor to it, but it never overshadows the real substance of the author's witticism. It's a funny book, but not "hillarious" as the back cover of this volume attests. From a different point of view, it's a rather sad book if you understand the implications of the subject matter. A very good book and would recommend to any one interested in modern and post-modern American prose.
Refutations:
* Vonnegut is a post-modernist, which implies that the book (or any work of art) can and more likely be free of classical rigidity. So, complaining that he jumps back and forth through time and places is not a good criterion to undermine this work.
* Repudiating this work because of Vonnegut's anti-war passages is as unfair as doing the same for say, Hemingway, O'Brian, Dalai Lama.
* This is a quinteseential post-moder work, and as said above, it should and does not need to conform to the cannonical rules of plot flow, time flow, and characater development. You could even call this book a Cubist work due to its subdivisions within chapters.
* This book goes much more than just war. It goes into love, sex, selling of American enterprises (and hence America) to foreign investors, race, class consciousness, and the attempt to keep the status quo by those who are ver well-off.
* This book is completely well structured. Your could easily read just one chapter and be as happy as reading the whole book. The chapters are self-sufficient and self-contained. The further chapters are elaborations of thing, characters and bits from preceding chapters.
* This is a GOOD book!
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Title: Jailbird by Kurt Vonnegut ISBN: 0385333900 Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: 12 January, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Slapstick : Or Lonesome No More! by Kurt Vonnegut ISBN: 0385334230 Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: 11 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $14.00 |
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Title: Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut ISBN: 0385334206 Publisher: Delta Pub. Date: 11 May, 1999 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
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Title: Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut ISBN: 0425164349 Publisher: Berkley Pub Group Pub. Date: August, 1998 List Price(USD): $13.00 |
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Title: Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut ISBN: 0440180295 Publisher: Dell Publishing Pub. Date: 03 November, 1991 List Price(USD): $7.50 |
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