My Vonnegut trend continues and this time it had me reading his fourth novel Cat’s Cradle. If the novel wasn’t satire, it’d be one hell of a depressing story. However, with Vonnegut’s interjection of humor and ways of pinpointing the absurdity of humanity, the novel is introspective of how we make a mess of things and at its core is a hope of pointing out what is really important.

First published in 1963, Cat’s Cradle is where many of Vonnegut’s fictitious words originate. His creation of the religion of Bokonon also created words such as foma, granfalloon, and karass. This novel is also the origination of ice-nine. All become relevant to the central story but I won’t delve into them to avoid potential spoilers.

One feature I found I really liked about this book is the incredibly short chapters. Right now, time for reading is hard to come by for me and this ~300 page book has 127 chapters leaving many to be only a page or two in length and therefore easier to pick up and put down. Although the book itself is easy enough to read in one sitting if you feel so inclined.

The more I think on the events of this book the more I come to like it as a novel, social commentary, and overall poke in the ribs to every reader. I understand why this is one of his more popular novels. Perhaps it will be one of your favorites.

Happy Reading.