Essential reading for lateral thinkers ( )

Consists of short stories which are funny, wicked and clever. ( )

Hands down the greatest short story compilation by a master of the written word. Gems like "Harrison Bergeron" and the "Euphio Question" are simply incredible explorations into society's incessant need to strive for an unreachable utopia at the cost of humanity's soul. Highly, highly recommended. ( )

9.5

My road to Vonnegut has been a long one. I read Slaughterhouse-Five for a Contemporary Fiction class in college and enjoyed it very much, and I always intended to explore his other works at some point. Unfortunately, that didn't happen until a publication I subscribe to arrived in my mailbox containing an essay from his most recent (and, unfortunately, posthumous) collection, Armageddon in Retrospect. I was immediately gripped by the vitality of the piece, a reflection on the firebombing of Dresden, and I knew the time had come for me to finally get my hands on more of Vonnegut's work.

When I first opened this book, I found myself laughing out loud at the preface, and I knew I was in good hands. Paging back through the book now, I find myself fighting an urge to read passages aloud to no one. Some stories within are science fiction (with an interesting dichotomy of utopia/dystopia) while others are "mainstream" fiction, and they vary quite a bit in theme and tone; but I found in each of them a core of distinct humanity that pulled me in.

I thought about naming the stories in this collection that I enjoyed the most, until I realized that I'd be listing most of the table of contents. Suffice it to say that this is a wonderful book. Some of the stories are better than others, of course, but they're all accessible and highly interesting. Vonnegut's humor is often dark, but it shines, and his insights into humanity's quirks and foibles are sometimes stunning (I will point you here to "The Manned Missiles").

Waiting so long to rediscover Vonnegut's work was my mistake. I do not plan to make it again. ( )