by Kurt Vonnegut
Welcome!
Thank you for coming to my blog about Kurt Vonnegut's Cat's Cradle. Below you will find some basic information about the author and the novel with links to more information and sites to buy the novel. In my blog, you can explore with my the world that Vonnegut creates with the fantastical lives of the Hoenikkers and all those connected to them. I hope you enjoy!
About Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut is a renowned writer and artists born in Indianapolis on November 11th, 1922. Fighting in World War II greatly impacted Vonnegut, as did the drug overdose of his mother in 1944, and these events developed into themes shown prominently in his writing. In his novels, Vonnegut is the embodiment of black humor, satirically commenting on a multitude of aspects of the human condition. Highly recognized in the literary scene, Vonnegut wrote 27 novels, including Cat's Cradle and Slaughter House Five, and short stories within his lifetime before it tragically ended after a fall on April 11th, 2007.
The Novel
Cat's Cradle as a novel examines the human experience through the satirical telling of the central story of the Hoenikkers and spin-off stories of smaller characters. Criticizing organized religion, the aspects of war, truth, love, and humanity, Vonnegut leaves a cutting remark about the world as we know it. If you don't know satire, you will when you read this book!
The novel begins with Jonah, or John, names are fickle in this case, the main character, telling us of his plan to write a book about the day the atomic bomb was dropped. The plot develops and thickens as we are dropped into the stories of the Hoenikkers' lives; Newt, Angela, Frank, Felix, and Emily. We peel away at the story to uncover their true natures and their own accounts of what happened. Through these developments, the reader is introduced to the concept of ice-nine, a crystalline form of water with the capability to turn any water it touches into ice. How ice-nine came to be, who has it, and how they got it is all uncovered within the novel, but I won't spoil it for you! If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it, and if you have, I hope you enjoy my journey to uncover the truths of the story and understand the criticisms of Vonnegut made within.
The novel begins with Jonah, or John, names are fickle in this case, the main character, telling us of his plan to write a book about the day the atomic bomb was dropped. The plot develops and thickens as we are dropped into the stories of the Hoenikkers' lives; Newt, Angela, Frank, Felix, and Emily. We peel away at the story to uncover their true natures and their own accounts of what happened. Through these developments, the reader is introduced to the concept of ice-nine, a crystalline form of water with the capability to turn any water it touches into ice. How ice-nine came to be, who has it, and how they got it is all uncovered within the novel, but I won't spoil it for you! If you haven't read the book, I highly recommend it, and if you have, I hope you enjoy my journey to uncover the truths of the story and understand the criticisms of Vonnegut made within.
Listen to the Book:
Fair warning: it is over 5 hours and you won't catch as much as you would while reading.
Annnddd If you are even too lazy for that
Here is a decent plot summary, although I HIGHLY recommend against going just off this.