Consider This Classic: Cassie Recommends
Consider This Classic is a monthly feature where bloggers highlight and recommend their favorite classic. They'll tell you when they first read it, why they love it and where to go from there. If you'd like to participate in Consider This Classic, click here to sign up.
Today I've got Cassie from Happy Book Lovers here to recommend her favorite classic. I was excited when I saw that she had submitted a recommendation because it introduced me to her blog. I was immediately a fan, just from the design alone, and then I found out she's been blogging since 2009. This girl has been talking books for a long time, which means there are a lot of awesome posts for you to explore on her blog!
Publication Date: 1963
Originally Published In: United States
Amazon | Goodreads
Summary (from Goodreads)
Cat’s Cradle is Kurt Vonnegut’s satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planet’s ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist, a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer, and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny.
A book that left an indelible mark on an entire generation of readers, Cat’s Cradle is one of the twentieth century’s most important works — and Vonnegut at his very best.
Sophomore year in high school, my teacher was wonderful and we read a lot of books by famous authors, but not their most famous works. Instead, I fell in love with this book. I was the only one in class who loved it as much as I did (I think I was the only one who actually read it).
Reread it again in college and actually spit water at my roommate because of a part I laughed at so hard. Whoops :)
It's kind of an unheard-of classic, which I love. It's satirical, funny (I'm talking raunchy and laugh-out-loud funny), and really thoughtful about human interaction and experiences.
Ella Minnow Pea - it's a fiction epistolary novel set in the same sort of alternate-universe where a society has a ritual they participate in and it's totally normal.
Not really totally similar, but fans of The Importance of Being Earnest (or anything Oscar Wilde) will see similarities with humor style and the general hilarity of the cast of characters.
Yes, Vonnegut, yes!! I never had to read any of his books in high school/college, so it wasn't until my early 20s that I finally discovered what all the fuss was about. I'm a little embarrassed to admit this, but I assumed he was a horribly pretentious writer only beloved by horribly pretentious people.
ReplyDeleteSO NOT TRUE. Vonnegut is hilarious and moving and my intro (Breakfast of Champions) was enough to seal the deal. Since then I've been buying everything I can get my hands on and I'm loving that Cassie rec'd a lesser-known work. Galapagos is another perfect under-the-radar (or as under-the-radar as you can get with Vonnegut) read that I adored. :)
One of my sons gets obsessive when he discovers a writer that he enjoys reading. He owns everything Vonnegut every wrote, including some letters he exchanged with a fan back in the day. My son guided me through quite a few books during the past year, and I loved Sirens of Titan the best. Cat's Cradle was excellent but prescient--I wish we'd grown past where scientists do things just because they can, and no one ever thinks about whether or not they should. And the "No cat, no cradle" line has become part of my everyday language. I also loved Slaughterhouse 5, which wasn't at all what I had expected. Unlike you or my husband, I'd never gotten the chance to read any Vonnegut either in high school, or as an English major in college. But those I knew who did read this in high school thought it was stupid.
ReplyDeleteI didn't really enjoy Catch 22 as much as the hype, so I was afraid that S. 5 would be the same. But it wasn't because Vonnegut was such a damn good writer!
Added myself as a follower, since I'm always on the look-out for good reading recommendations, particularly out of the genre I write in. I don't ever read the kinds of books I write so as to not be able to inadvertently copy any ideas.
Glad to meet you!
I have not read Kurt Vonnegut BUT I have read Ella Minnow Pea and The Importance of Being Earnest. I didn't realize that Cat's Cradle was humorous, actually! I remember a friend of mine in high school was OBSESSED with Vonnegut and carried his books around all the time.
ReplyDeleteI haven't read Vonnegut either but I loved Ella Minnow Pea and I also really enjoyed The Importance of Being Earnest. Will have to put this on my TBR!
DeleteYaaaay, I love Cat's Cradle! Vonnegut is one of my favorite authors, but after reading Hocus Pocus, which I didn't think was very good, I've been nervous about diving back into more of his writing. (It's silly, I know.) Nice to meet you!
ReplyDeleteIt's always fun for me to check out Consider This Classic, because I discover books I'd never have heard of or considered reading otherwise. That having been said, I've never read any Vonnegut! Cat's Cradle sounds like it's very crazy, but in the best way. I do think it's great that it made you laugh - always a plus!
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