Kurt Vonnegut's Classic Novel 'Cat's Cradle' - A Whimsical Satire of Cold War Culture

Bob Forrest: Book as described. Arrived in perfect condition

United Kingdom on Dec 06, 2023

Lili: This should be part of the high school curriculum. If you missed this book, it's never too late to get it

Canada on Nov 30, 2023

z_me: A quick and entertaining read. Dark humor!

Germany on Nov 29, 2023

Scarlett Murphy: came in ALMOST perfect condition, but was bent a little in the box it was shipped in with some other of my orders

United Kingdom on Oct 24, 2023

Fiona: I had to buy the book for school. I didn’t really think it was interesting. It was kind of hard to follow but I’m not gonna let that dictate my review honestly because the book is good quality wasn’t damaged when it came in the mail just an interest me and it’s not like I went out of my way to buy. I need it for school so

United States on Sep 14, 2023

catmajo: A poor scientist invents a product sought after by espionage groups from major countries and leaves samples to his children hounded by spies so that only one small sample us left on a poverty stricken country that happens to be the home of a woman considered the most beautiful in the world…and a reported is assigned to seek out both stories.

United States on Aug 13, 2023

Tracey Madeley: I think that this novel appears fragmented because there are a lot of different characters who when interviewed help to form a picture of the scientist Felix Hoenikker. In relation to the Bokonon religion and all the quotes and poems, it's almost like nonsense poetry, making little sense in places. In this sense it is very Modernist, to see the truth within the chaos.

It is an interesting start to the book where the narrator asks us to call him Jonah. Jonah was told by God to go to Nineveh, to warn the people of the impending doom. As a prophet he had a certain authority and responsibility, but he was wilful and disobedient and went in the opposite direction. Is the narrator here to point out our own destructive tendencies and that if we don't reform, it will lead to our own destruction, certainly his book, The End of the World would suggest this. However the book makes it point with a large degree of humour. "When I was a younger man - two wives ago, 250,000 cigarettes ago, 3,000 quartz of booze ago .." The modern vices, common to all humanity, who make mistakes. He talks about humanity being divided into teams, a karas, who do God's will without ever knowing what they are...

United Kingdom on Jul 19, 2014

Carioca56: Cat's Cradle is arguably Vonneguts greatest work, although I haven't read them all. It's about the end of the world, and starts on the anniversary of the end of the world for the Japanese, the day the atom bomb was dropped on Hiroshima.

Our protagonist, Jonah, is writing a book about the end of the world. He ends up interviewing the offspring of the father of the atom bomb, Dr. Felix Hoenikker, an eccentric, seemingly uncaring father who, unbeknownst to most, also makes "Ice Nine" before he dies. Ice Nine causes everything to freeze. It precipates the end of the world.

Before Ice Nine takes over, and freezes the world, Vonnegut takes us on a whirlwind tour of the hearts and minds of a slew of zany characters, from Newt the midget, son of The Father of The Atom Bomb, to a secretary who disdains anyone who "thinks too much," to a philanthropist who turns out to be the complete opposite, to a zillion others (almost too many) in between. We are taken to the island of San Lorenzo, a Carribean banana republic run by a paranoind, eccentric dictator that is totally at the beck and call of the USA, and that is where things really get weird.

This book is divided into...

United States on Aug 31, 2012

Robert P. Poole: I don't want to spend too much time writing a review of what is, in essence, a classic novel. This is my first reading of Cat's Cradle, and my first time reading anything of substantial length by Kurt Vonnegut. The simple reason I don't want to spend too much time reviewing this book is that it has already been reviewed countless times, especially by people far more familiar with it than I am.

SPOILER ALERT! This is a short book, and it's almost impossible to avoid spoiling even the ending while trying to discuss significant aspects of the work. Also, this book has been around a while, meaning it's highly unlikely you won't have heard at least a capsule summary of the plot. That said, the following two paragraphs reveal details near the end of the book.

There were only two things I found disappointing in the story: First, there was no speculation nor explanation given as to why there would suddenly be purple-mouthed tornadoes all over the place. Perhaps that was just the author's speculation about the knock-on effects of all the Earth's water suddenly converting to ice-nine.

Second, there was mention of a strange nimbus ("lavender corona") surrounding the...

United States on May 09, 2011