Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut’s satirical reflection on contemporary man and his madness is found in Cat’s Cradle. A calypso singer’s complete, original theology, a midget as the protagonist, and a vision of the future that is both darkly fatalistic and hilariously funny all come together in this apocalyptic tale of this planet’s final fate. One of the most significant works of the twentieth century, Cat’s Cradle is Vonnegut at its very best and a novel that forever changed a generation of readers.
Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut
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Although I haven’t read all of Vonnegut’s works, Cat’s Cradle is undoubtedly his best. It is about the end of the world and begins on the day the atomic bomb was dropped on Hiroshima, which for the Japanese marked the end of the world.
Jonah, the main character, is penning a book about the end of the world. He ultimately speaks with Dr. Felix Hoenikker, the son of the man who invented the atom bomb. Dr. Hoenikker is an eccentric and neglectful father who, unbeknownst to most, also creates “Ice Nine” before passing away. Everything freezes as a result of Ice Nine. The end of the planet is imminent.
Vonnegut takes us on a whirlwind tour of the hearts and minds of a slew of zany characters before Ice Nine takes over and freezes the world, 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, and a zillion others (almost too many) in between. Things start to get strange when we are taken to the island of San Lorenzo, a Caribbean banana republic ruled by a paranoid, eccentric tyrant who is completely at the whim of the USA.
