Broad humor and bitter irony collide in this fictional autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, who, at age seventy-one, wants to be left alone on his Long Island estate with the secret he has locked inside his potato barn. But then a voluptuous young widow badgers Rabo into telling his life story—and Vonnegut in turn tells us the plain, heart-hammering truth about man’s careless fancy to create or destroy what he loves.
Bluebeard
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Book Description
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Editorial Reviews
From Library Journal
Vonnegut rounds up several familiar themes and character types for his 13th novel: genocide, the surreality of the modern world, fluid interplay of the past and present, and the less-than-heroic figure taking center stage to tell his story. Here he elevates to narrator a minor character from Breakfast of Champions , wounded World War II veteran and abstract painter Rabo Karabekian. At the urging of enchantress-as-bully Circe Berman, Karabekian writes his "hoax autobiography." Vonnegut uses the tale to satirize art movements and the art-as-investment mind-set and to explore the shifting shape of reality. Although not among his best novels, Bluebeard is a good one and features liberal doses of his off-balance humor. Recommended. A.J. Wright, Univ. of Alabama at Birmingham
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Copyright 1988 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Review
“Ranks with Vonnegut’s best and goes one step beyond . . . joyous, soaring fiction.”—The Atlanta Journal and Constitution
“Vonnegut is at his edifying best.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer . . . a zany but moral mad scientist. ”—Time
“Vonnegut is at his edifying best.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer
“Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer . . . a zany but moral mad scientist. ”—Time
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More About the Author
Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922. He studied at the universities of Chicago and Tennessee and later began to write short stories for magazines. His first novel, Player Piano, was published in 1951 and since then he has written many novels, among them: The Sirens of Titan (1959), Mother Night (1961), Cat's Cradle (1963), God Bless You Mr Rosewater (1964), Welcome to the Monkey House; a collection of short stories (1968), Breakfast of Champions (1973), Slapstick, or Lonesome No More (1976), Jailbird (1979), Deadeye Dick (1982), Galapagos (1985), Bluebeard (1988) and Hocus Pocus (1990). During the Second World War he was held prisoner in Germany and was present at the bombing of Dresden, an experience which provided the setting for his most famous work to date, Slaughterhouse Five (1969). He has also published a volume of autobiography entitled Palm Sunday (1981) and a collection of essays and speeches, Fates Worse Than Death (1991).
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
45 of 47 people found the following review helpful
Format:Paperback
I've read lots of Vonnegut and frankly I thought this was one of his lesser works. Boy, was I wrong. Here we have Vonnegut at his most focused on a long time, tearing off page after page that will make you laugh and stop and think at the same time. The story is basically the autobiography of an obscure artist character in Breakfast of Champions, but here he turns Rabo into someone you might think is real, so does his humor and pain cascade off the page. He bounces back and forth between his past and his present at his mansion where he just wants to be left alone, in the great Vonnegut tradition (and he doesn't need time travel this time out), comparing and contrasting the worst moments of his life with the best and trying to figure out what it all means. To me, this is one of Vonnegut's most human novels, his sense of satire and wit are still apparent and sharp but the entire story isn't devoted to Vonnegut making some barbed point about us and society as a whole, it's there but there's more time put into having get to know Rabo has someone who might live down the street from us. I devoured this book and found myself satisified, even the long anticipated secret of what lies in the potato barn was well worth the suspense (and it really is), this is the most fun I've had with a Vonnegut book in long time. Probably one of his more obscure works, it deserves to be read along with his other classics. It may not reach those peaks but it comes darn close.
18 of 18 people found the following review helpful
By Mike Stone
Format:Mass Market Paperback
Rabo Karabekian was first introduced in "Breakfast of Champions", a minor character in a surreal story. Here he gets the full treatment, and comes off as another one of those great curmudgeon characters. Only in the hands of Vonnegut, he becomes much more. He is crotchety, bitter, cynical, and several steps from senility. But he still has a wonderful memory for his past, and Vonnegut creates for him a fictional autobiography that's fascinating and endearing. And a laugh riot.
Rabo has one eye. Rabo was an artist of astounding technical talent, yet helped form the Abstract Expressionist movement (along with his friends the fictional Terry Kitchen and the very real Jackson Pollock). Rabo has seen the best talents of his generation succumb to suicide and self-destruction, yet he is still kicking and screaming at 71. Rabo (guided by Vonnegut) is in the process of pouring his life onto the page, with the encouragement of a mysterious woman who has moved into his home.
Vonnegut's greatest accomplishment in the book is the building up of the surprise ending (What the heck is in the barn?) to the point where something astounding should happen, and then drawing up a scene where something astounding happens. It all lives up to the hype, which is a tough thing to do. But I never doubted my man Kurt for a second. He is one of my favourite writers -- for his pointed humour and his deceptively simple prose -- and this is one of his best books. He has managed to create a commentary on the history of war, art, Europe, America, and literature in the twentieth century, by gently leading the reader through a guided tour of one man's life.
14 of 14 people found the following review helpful
By brian p
Format:Kindle Edition|Amazon Verified Purchase
5 stars for the Vonnegut book. 1 star for the Kindle edition.
This Kindle book is absolutely loaded with typos from poorly scanned and edited OCR. They must have had an unpaid intern take care of it. It goes to show me just how little the publishers care about ebooks, and how they'd like to slow demand for what they think they can't get insane profits from. It wouldn't surprise me if they purposely do a horrible job with every ebook just to get people running back to their precious overpriced paperbacks and hardcovers.
Examples of typos:
"Tor what?"
He, cheat and steal
"J already have," she said.
Talk about realism]
--The author wrote "realism!" in italics so the OCR thinks an italics exclamation point is a bracket. Nobody changed it. How could they miss this stuff? It's not just misspellings but also lack of commas, quotation marks, and so on. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't on every couple of pages. The first few are no problem, nobody's perfect. But once they become a distraction, it really takes away from the reading experience.
The should at the very least have some respect for the late Mr Vonnegut and have an editor do a once over.
This Kindle book is absolutely loaded with typos from poorly scanned and edited OCR. They must have had an unpaid intern take care of it. It goes to show me just how little the publishers care about ebooks, and how they'd like to slow demand for what they think they can't get insane profits from. It wouldn't surprise me if they purposely do a horrible job with every ebook just to get people running back to their precious overpriced paperbacks and hardcovers.
Examples of typos:
"Tor what?"
He, cheat and steal
"J already have," she said.
Talk about realism]
--The author wrote "realism!" in italics so the OCR thinks an italics exclamation point is a bracket. Nobody changed it. How could they miss this stuff? It's not just misspellings but also lack of commas, quotation marks, and so on. It wouldn't be so bad if they weren't on every couple of pages. The first few are no problem, nobody's perfect. But once they become a distraction, it really takes away from the reading experience.
The should at the very least have some respect for the late Mr Vonnegut and have an editor do a once over.
Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great story by a Terriffic Author
I loved this, Kurt delivers. Quite charming story that does not beat you over the head. I was not expecting a whole lot and found myself driving on into it.
Published 52 minutes ago by Mike Albanese
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book
Loves this book a lot. I would reccoment Cat's Craddle as better though. Easy read, and very funny. If you like Vonnegut, you will like this book.
Published 5 days ago by Vladimir Kulish
5.0 out of 5 stars
Ambivalence
Kurt Vonnegut ameliorates our anxieties with gregarious allegories, sometimes, as if he would shelter us from the truth about human conduct. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Joyce Metzger
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great Book
Great price. Devivered fast and in good shape. I would purchase from this dealer again.
Five more words required - stupid.
Five more words required - stupid.
Published 2 months ago by Daniel B. Rutter
5.0 out of 5 stars
Oh Happy Meat Oh Happy Soul! Oh Happy Hopeful Book!
By far the most un-Vonnegut of the Vonneguts and yet despite its departure from the archetypical style that the Slaughterhouse Five author is known for, this book is a masterpiece. Read more
Published 3 months ago by S. L. Pineda
4.0 out of 5 stars
What is art? What is commerce? Who decides?
As questions go, these are good ones: What is art? What is commerce? Who decides?
In "Bluebeard," Kurt Vonnegut grapples with those questions alongside a handful of... Read more
In "Bluebeard," Kurt Vonnegut grapples with those questions alongside a handful of... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Joseph Williams Jr.
4.0 out of 5 stars
A story that makes you want to research a little art history.
Not Vonnegut's typical style, but filled with unique characters & endless serendipity & coincidence. I'd honestly given it 3.5 stars I that were an option, but worth the read. Read more
Published 4 months ago by Owen Lowery
4.0 out of 5 stars
The Ending Saved this Book
I couldn't decide how to rate this book, 3 or 4 stars. For me, this wasn't a 5 star book, but nonetheless, it's a good one. Read more
Published 5 months ago by krisman
5.0 out of 5 stars
As usual Vonnegut doesn't disappoint.
I like Vonnegut so I am very pleased with the book as with most everything he wrote. It's not an earth shattering story but a very good read for me.
Published 5 months ago by M. suits
5.0 out of 5 stars
As usual, a gem.
I have read a few of Vonnegut's works, and I always enjoy his musings and satire. This was no exception. Read more
Published 5 months ago by JudyK
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 17
books:
See all 17 books this book cites
- The Vietnam War by Barry Gregory on page 99, page 244, and page 308
- Mark Rothko (Museum of Modern Art) by Peter Howard Selz on page 20, and page 160
- The Great Depression (Researching American History) by JoAnne Weisman Deitch on page 194, and page 216
- Breakfast of Champions: A Novel by Kurt Vonnegut in Front Matter (1), and Front Matter (2)
- Palm Sunday: An Autobiographical Collage by Kurt Vonnegut in Front Matter
See all 17 books this book cites
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