Patrick Apple-2 Beverley's review
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A beautiful, amazing book, about genius, stupidity and human nature that manages to be funny with a bitter irony without ever losing the seriousness and beauty of its convoluted plot. As with all Vonnegut's books, it is told in flashback from the point of view of one of the characters, jumping around in time and referring to the present day in between long narratives of the past. Its stroke of genius is in the 'middle names' system employed by Wilbur Swain as President of America. If you want to get a new middle name for yourself based on the book's system, go to www.kevan.org and click 'Lonesome No More!'
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how many great books can one man write
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could this possible be the pre-story to the isabelle & nathanial from six feet under?
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One of Vonnegut's best
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Slapstick (subtitled "Lonesome No More") as well as describing the strange childhood of the Swain twins, also paints a picture of a post apocalyptic world, where new York has been destroyed, and people are camping out in the ground floor of the abandoned Empire State Building.
The damaged male twin has managed to become the last president of the USA with a campaign built on the slogan "Lonesome No More", offering everybody the chance to join new extended families by the addition of new middle names.
The book is another of Kurt's attempts (IMHO) to describe the loneliness and futility of existence, but also that that life has an ironic humorous side. Whilst not dealing with the same big issues as Slaughterhouse 5, it speaks to me of much that is flawed but admirable in the human spirit- and it's bloody funny.
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Heart-Warming!
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Kurt Vonnegut has wrote a book about a hideously ugly set of twins who are geniuses together but when they are apart they are dim and supid. This life story is looked at through the eyes of the male twin, who feels that he cannot live without his sister. The children are hated and despised. by their parents and this is partly what makes them so close. The twins' strange and fragile situation is looked at as an experiment and they undergo many tests when they are apart and as I said before when together they are bright and clever but when apart they are virtually disabled. The female twin finally gets put in a home and this causes the twins much distress. Kurt Vonnegut bases this story on the relationship with his brother. It is a story that really makes you consider family values although it does so in a strange way. The first thing this book makes you feel is sorrow for the freaky children whose parents can't stand or even hate then, the fact that they can't live without each other. The parents locked the chlidren up for such a long time in a mansion that they knew very little of the outside world. The weirdness ir even the uniqueness of this story is what makes it such a masterpiece. You may find it strange that a book can have as much meaning as I am making out this one has but you really need to read it to find out for yourself.
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