Someone, maybe Emerson, predicted that novels would become frankly autobiographical in the twentieth century, and, sure enough, Henry Miller wrote the classic autobiographical novel Tropic of Cancer, Philip Roth and Norman Mailer starred themselves in ostensible novels, and, vice versa, Kenneth Rexroth called his actual life story (another classic) An Autobiographical Novel. Now Vonnegut, who has barged into several previous novels, erases the line between fact and fancy to mostly gabble on like the funny old geezer he is. He tells great jokes, relays more family history than anything else, suggests several new amendments to the Constitution, tosses out a fistful of his trademark tag lines (the best one is "ting-a-ling," although it probably won't supplant Slaughterhouse Five's "so it goes" as Vonnegutians' favorite), and does his mournful, baggy-pants philosopher-clown routine one more time. Oh, there is some indisputable fiction here. Vonnegut has salvaged bits of a 1996 novel, which he aborted at the last minute, based on the premise that a bump in the space-time continuum--a "time-quake"--throws the universe 10 years backward, from 2001 to 1991, and also includes Vonnegut's most famous recurring character (outstanding in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater), perpetually unsuccessful science-fiction writer Kilgore Trout. This new book's premise is the proposition that most people hate living, with good reason; mixed with the '96 stuff, it spices an utterly Vonnegutian sweet-and-sour stew deliciously. Ray Olson
From Kirkus Reviews
Vonnegut's first ``novel'' in seven years (and 14th overall) might by an extremely generous extension of the term be labeled an unassuming metafiction. Actually, it's unequal parts commonplace book, fragmentary autobiography, dystopian romance, and bemused meditation on our planet's presumable determination to destroy itself. The premise goes as follows: In the year 2001, ``a sudden glitch in the space- time continuum, made everybody and everything do exactly what they'd been doing during the past decade . . . a second time'': i.e., 2001 reverted to 1991, and ``free will kicked in again'' only after said decade had torturously re-run itself. One yearns to know what Thomas Berger might have made of this idea. Vonnegut, essentially, settles for employing it as an excuse to rummage through his own past and that of his alter-ego, the fictional science fiction writer Kilgore Trout. Accordingly, the novel about this ``timequake'' becomes a free-form farrago in which the author tenderly salutes and mourns his living and dead siblings, wives, and children; pays tribute to favorite books and writers; retells old jokes; reminisces about his experiences in WW II, and about his experiences also as a later respected public figure (visiting Nigeria after the Biafran War; giving a speech on the 50th anniversary of the bombing of Hiroshima); and woolgathers--often cloyingly--about the fate of ``humanism'' in an age dominated by technology. The book severely tests a reader's patience when it's padded with random bits of semi-relevant information and needless explanations (the plot of The Scarlet Letter; the full text of the 23rd Psalm). And yet, Vonnegut's fitful summaries of the life and writings of the Hunter Thompsonlike Kilgore Trout are often very funny (the story ``The Sisters B-36,'' set on ``the matriarchal planet Booboo,'' really ought to have been written). So, as he himself might say, it goes. ``We are here on earth to fart around'' runs one of Vonnegut's more endearing pronouncements. Nobody does it better. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.
Review
Praise for Timequake
“[A] quirky mix of fiction and biography...This is the indispensable Vonnegut.”—San Francisco Chronicle“Wry and trenchant...highly entertaining.”—The New York Times Book Review
“His funniest book since Breakfast of Champions...There are nuggets of Vonnegutian wisdom throughout.”—Newsweek
“Timequake is a novel by, and starring, Kurt Vonnegut...What Vonnegut does, which no one can do better, is give a big postmodern shrug...You've got to love him.”—The Washington Post Book World
“Humorous, sardonic...Timequake makes for irresistible reading that's loaded with more important truths than it lets on...Moralizing has never been funnier.”—Chicago Sun-Times
“Part autobiography, part meditation, part satire...Vonnegut is at his best.”—Atlanta Journal & Constitution
About the Author
Kurt Vonnegut was a master of contemporary American literature. His black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America’s attention in The Sirens of Titan in 1959 and established him, in the words of The New York Times, as “a true artist” with the publication of Cat’s Cradle in 1963. He was, as Graham Greene declared, “one of the best living American writers.” Mr. Vonnegut passed away in April 2007.
A timequake is a rare phenomenon, a kind of decade-long dj vu. In this fantasy-memoir-harangue, Vonnegut pens two versions of a novel about timequakes; in one he writes a long scene between himself and his fictional alter ego, Kilgore Trout. Paradoxes abound as the author speaks out on just about everything on his mind. Norman Dietz perfectly captures the codgerly, sardonic grouchiness that pervades the narrative. Further, his intelligence makes him able to play the underlying ideas and to embue them with unity; whereas a less mature narrator would falter and flail. His seasoned voice and flawless understanding of his text convey the impression that the author himself is speaking. This is a perfect coupling of writer and actor. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE's Earphones Award (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine
