Customer Reviews

Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Short Fiction

5 star:		(11)
4 star:		(5)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This newly published collection of Kurt Vonnegut short "stories" is a worthy addition to your personal library and a delight for fans - especially those that enjoy reading the full breadth of his writing style. While some of the selections display the quick wit with a twist so common to his more popular works, others border on the bizarre...of course, each has the element of surprise that only Vonnegut does so well.

Contents include:
Confido
FUBAR
Shout About it from the Housetops
A Song for Selma
Hall of Mirrors
The Nice Little People
Hello, Red
Little Drops of Water
The Petrified Ants

The book is hardcover with dustjacket and contains just over 200 pages of pure pleasure reading...the type that makes literature worth the time and effort to slow down, read and reflect upon. Unlike authors of the past, Vonnegut reflects modern society and is often compared to the likes of Twain etc... with an up-to-date appeal that makes it relevant yet refreshing.

Very enjoyable - superb gift idea for Vonnegut fans!

Like the other reviewers I was overjoyed for an opportunity to have something new (and old) to read by the master. These stories are well written, sweet, often surprising and relatively wholesome compared to later work. They also very much reflect a much more innocent era. I would certainly recommend this book to anyone who has read Vonnegut's other work. However, let's keep this in perspective. If we save 5 stars for his masterpieces like Cat's Cradle, and maybe four for somewhat lesser books, then we have to be honest and give this one a 3.

Much better than the last two bits of material. These are stories from the front end of his climb to becoming the best American writer since Twain. The other stuff I'd heard before but read greedily like a man thirsting for his last breath. While these stories don't equal his best known works, they are worth the time of someone who has idolized the man and his writing. But if that is true, you probably aren't reading this. Give it a whirl, what have you got to lose?

I love this book so much, I'm speechless. I feel like a little kid in a candy store. This is such a delight and I cannot stop reading. I don't want to work, I don't want to sleep! I just want to read this book!
I cannot believe it was never published before. What a wonderful surprise for any Vonnegut fan!

What a fabolous thing to get another volume of Vonnegut stories. Despite the fact that they were never published, I am finding the best of them to be better than those gathered in 'Bagombo Snuff Box'. No, these stories aren't in league with the classics of 'Welcome to the Monkey House', but they are solid and they bear the authors unmistakable stamp, and that is plenty.
I would reserve a five star rating for his best work, but this deserves four- no mean feat.

Frankly, I had never been terribly impressed with Kurt Vonnegut's short fiction. It seemed his best short stories were the ones he didn't write, but rather referred to in the context of some of his novels. Okay, yes, the shorts in "Welcome to the Monkey House" and "Bagombo Snuff Box" were generally okay, but really nothing compared to the value and importance of his novels. While a sort of short story mediocrity still permeates "Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Short Fiction," there are a few gems here.

Sidney Offit writes in the Foreward, "Unpublished is not a word we identify with a Kurt Vonnegut short story. It may well be that these stories didn't appear in print because for one reason or another they didn't satisfy Kurt." Offit's comment is a little ironic because, in my humble opinion, two of Vonnegut's best short stories are included in this collection. The first, "Hello, Red," in which an embittered war veteran returns home to claim what he believes is his due, builds suspense in a world of complex adult emotions only to be undone by the simple, dramatic act of a beautiful red-haired eight-year old girl. In the second, a determined young woman wedges her way into the life and heart of a womanizing, bachelor whose tragic flaw is an obsessive-compulsive disorder in the story entitled, "Little Drops of Water."

In all, there are 14 stories. A regular character in many of Vonnegut's previous short stories, high school band teacher George M. Helmholtz, shows up to teach a lesson about both privacy and potential in "A Song for Selma," an unscrupulous hypnotist gets what he deserves in "Hall of Mirrors," an a murderer is brought to justice by a wily small-town cop and an innocent, bright-eyed delivery boy in "The Honor of a Newsboy." All tolled, the subject matter is generally entertaining, while some of the stories are told by the author better than others. I thought the title story was disappointing.

Among other entertaining inclusions in the collection are reproductions of Kurt Vonnegut's art doodles which accompany the start of each story. Vonnegut's art and prints is becoming as collectible as are his first editions. There is also copy of a 1951 letter from the author to Walter J. Miller in which Vonnegut is customarily and entertainingly self-deprecating.

In all, "Look at the Birdie" is a nice collection of a great American author's work in one of his tertiary genres. Definitely worth the time for a fan or student of Kurt Vonnegut, a nice way to spend some light-reading time for anyone else.

As one would expect, these are brilliant stories crisply told, obviously earlier works well polished. Vonnegut had an eye for character and an ear for dialogue, and a wonderful, often whimsical sense of setting and story line. What is missing in almost all of these stories is that oddity, or suspension of belief required in satirical -- or any -- science fiction. Missing but not missed. These stories sparkle with humor and delicately recreated observation of various aspects of human nature. they adhere to the concept that what is truly interesting is what people think and do. They are delicious from start to finish, and make us hope there are more byrued treasures in Vonnegut's ouvre wairing to be uncovered!

I'm very glad to have purchased this little view into his world and his mind. I've always enjoyed his works and they are even more sentimental knowing they were never published before.

To be brief, this collection of unpublished short fiction is a must read for anyone who has ever felt that the works of Kurt Vonnegut spoke to them in any way.

Unlike the short story collection released last year "Armageddon in Retrospect" this collection features about a dozen stories that explore what the novels of Vonnegut were all about...namely, the needs of people to connect with each other and with the world around them. These stories run the gammut of human strengths and weaknesses with characters that are vivid and leave a lasting impression. Gone are the rants about humans and their capacity to wage war, instead these stories focus on loneliness, corruption, betrayal, poverty, and a number of other situations about the human condition with a hopefulness and mildly uplifting view of mankind that is what helped make Vonnegut's stories so great.

Highly recommended!!!

THE STORIES ARE VERY INTERESTING -- THE ILLUSTRATIONS BY THE AUTHOR ARE REALLY QUITE GOOD -- AND REASON ENOUGH TO BUY THIS BOOK. IT SHOULD INSPIRE YOU TO ILLUSTRATE YOUR OWN WRITING. ONE CLASS -- "BEGINNING DRAWING" WILL DO.