Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut
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Book Reviews of Armageddon in Retrospect
Book Review: A Few Last(?) Things From the Master
Summary: 3 Stars
A collection of stories and essays by one of my favorite authors. Most are based on his experiences as a POW in Dresden, and in the time right afterwards. Several seem like attempts to craft his experiences into a story of some sort, and as the stories are undated, you wonder if these were early attempts to get a handle on it all - which he did in Sluaghterhouse Five. Or maybe they were later variations on this major and life-altering experience. Either way, they are very good, but not his best work. Still, it's good to read anything by this great American writer.Book Review: Pleased
Summary: 5 Stars
It has been a while since I read Kurt Vonnegut books, but this one helped me remember why I liked his writing so much. I was afraid this was going to be left overs but it is not and it is a great wrap up of Vonnegut's work.Book Review: Armageddon in Retrospect
Summary: 4 Stars
Kurt Vonnegut's writing is clear and most of the time biting. I could not fully understand the satire of the short piece Armageddon in Retrospect.Book Review: The Leftovers are Better Than the Last
Summary: 5 Stars
I've read a little more than half of Vonnegut's published work. As I got to his essays and speeches I found them to be lacking compared to his great and good fiction.
But this book is GREAT! It has one speech he gave in Indiana toward the end, which sets you up to think, well, this stuff wasn't published when he was alive for a reason. Then you get great stories, several of which deal with POWs in very different situations in WWII from Germans trying to pose as Americans to get the hell out of Germany to Americans kissing up to the captors to get out of work details.
His best story might be Great Day about a soldier in the 21st Century in the Army of the World who ends up in WWI during a training exercise who must insist that he was no hero as having only been in the war for 10 seconds and being blinded in that time. I feel that this characer is related to Vonnegut in that he was only in Europe for about 10 days before being captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge.
Another great story is The Unicorn Trap, which takes place in the 11th century.
I'm not sure which is my favorite, but I will say that you will not regreat buying this book. It is not like the leftovers of Chrales Bukowksi with great titles and boring, less than tragic poetry. This is a great compilation of work that should be an inspiration to other professionals that their legacy can be strengthened by what they did while they are here after they are gone.
Book Review: Still Vonnegut
Summary: 4 Stars
I thought that this book was pretty good. I only had one major problem with it. I read A Man Without a Country right before it-and the whole first part of the book was essentially the same.
Other than that...I chose to look at it this way: reading Armageddon in Retrospect was like hearing your grandfather tell you a story time and time again. It's nothing new, but if it's good, then you'll at least be slightly interested. Vonnegut told similar stories through the book (and through many others) but they're still good stories.