Amazon.com
Monkey House collects stories from the work of master writer Kurt Vonnegut, tales that are occasionally understated, but guaranteed both to amuse and to make you think. This third volume is the most enjoyable of the set; which is ironic, since the two stories here emphasize Vonnegut's grasp of real, interesting characters over his powerfully inventive imagination. Madeleine Kahn gives a standout performance in "More Stately Mansions" as a nightmarish neighbor, a woman obsessed with interior design, living in a gorgeous home--which exists largely only in her own mind. "The Foster Portfolio" (like volume 1's "Next Door") is a slick 1950s-era piece driven by a Hitchcockian plot. Jon Cryer plays Slippy Peters, a cynical investment advisor saddled with a new, pretty partner and a seemingly dead-end assignment: create a bond portfolio for a simple, pious grocery clerk named Foster. When it turns out Foster is a secret millionaire, Peters and his partner uncover his strange double life, and discover there's more to happiness than just money.
--Grant Balfour
