Rating: 8.3/10.
First novel by Kurt Vonnegut that I enjoyed. Although only about 300 pages, it has over 100 chapters, each with 2-3 pages. The story begins with a narrator trying to write a biography of scientist Felix Hoenikker, and interviews his three children and the people who knew Felix. However, in doing so, he is pulled towards San Lorenzo, an island where people practice Bokonism. This is a religion that believes life is meaningless in the end, and it suffices to live in the moment and form connections with other people (called karass). In the end, the world turns absurd as the narrator is nominated president of San Lorenzo, and randomly some ice-nine is spilled and basically destroys the world.
Kurt Vonnegut has a really unique style of writing. His sentence structure is simple and easy to understand, but the characters and plot always have some degree of absurdity. It feels like the world is entirely made up and isn’t supposed to make any sense, and we shouldn’t try to understand it, but instead just sit back and appreciate it, much in the style of Bokonism.
