Welcome to the Monkey House was #23 in my 2009 book-a-week project.
I listened to Kurt Vonnegut’s earliest collection of short writings on audio. My favorites were the satirical ones. There was a great story about small-town actors falling in love, one that took place, prophetically, in a suicide clinic, and one where a boy tries to rescue his neighbor’s marriage by requesting a song to a radio show host. My favorite might’ve been “Tom Edison’s Shaggy Dog,” which takes place in Tampa, and has a little to do with that very topic.
Some of the humor I’d expect from Vonnegut seemed to be absent in many of these stories, but they were still lighthearted. And of course his creativity and unmatched use of language stood intact.
I’m a couple pages away from finishing the next book—one with a really funny title that, eerily seems to have a little too much in common with myself. You’ll see what I mean. Sorry this review blows. Think of it more as a legal document archiving proof for myself so one day I’ll remember how I spent 2009. Time for bed now.
Tags: 2009 in Books, fiction, Kurt Vonnegut, short stories, Welcome to the Monkey House
