Cat’s Cradle

Cat’s Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut

For large portions of the book it’s difficult to see Cat’s Cradle as a science fiction novel despite being described by many as one. It reads more like a satire, and an extremely good one at that. But there are sci-fi elements peppered throughout, and it has that alternative timeline feel about it the further into the narrative you get. What I think can’t be disputed however, is that it’s an extremely bizarre and creative book, by one of the best at writing such novels.

I’ve really enjoyed Kurt Vonnegut’s writing over the last year. Both The Siren’s of Titan and Slaughterhouse Five were unlike anything i’d read before, and the same goes for Cat’s Cradle. The structure and formatting of the book alone make it worth reading. but it’s his satirical writing and odd ball characters that always keep a smile on my face. Those random lines of dialogue that feel so naughty or inappropriate, suddenly mixed with something so profound that it may never leave your mind. He’s playful, and highly intelligent. A potent mix.

Cat’s Cradle follows the story of Jonah who’s trying to put a book together tracing the steps of the atomic bomb’s creator the day the bomb was used. He’s interviewing everyone who knew him, his kids, and going down a rabbit hole of information that leads him to all kinds of weird and wonderful places filled with quirky characters, all while learning about a brand new religion.

Everything about this book is odd, and I love it for it. Every time our narrator gets sidetracked you think he’s going to get back on course, but he just goes with it. Before long you’ve meet so many insane people and lived through so many stories and are already on route to the next one.

The three children of Hoenikker (A proxy for Oppenheimer) are all fabulously weird and fucked up. All with their own stories and skewed perspective of their father. Everyone on the plane is nuts. The narrator himself is constantly telling us about a made-up religion. The backstory of the island is maybe my favourite part. All the while there’s something called Ice-nine hanging over our head and we’re not quite sure what it is, but if the inventor of the nuclear bomb made it, chances are it could be dangerous.

It’s one of those books were it’s best to just to go with it. Let yourself get sucked into the style and pace and enjoy the bizarre trip and crazy characters. It’s almost impossible to describe at times, yet did feel to me like it was someplace between Siren’s of Titan and Slaughterhouse five with its wackiness and fictional autobiographical style.

I would say due to its weirdness that it’s probably not a book for everyone, but it does seem universally loved, and rightly so. Therefore it’s one that i’d highly recommend, but just mention again that it’s more satire than sci-fi. Something like Dr Strangelove maybe. Give it go, you wouldn’t have read much else like it.