Customer Reviews

Wampeters Foma and Granfalloons

5 star:		(7)
4 star:		(4)
3 star:		(4)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This collection is probably most interesting to those who are arleady Vonnegut fans. It doesn't really even pretend to contend with the writer's greater works. I think that, perhaps, this book is most helpful to those who already know Vonnegut's body of work, and simply wish to understand more about the author himself. "Wampeter's, Foma, and Granfalloons" basically consists of Vonnegut's public speeches, as well as various essays. The book can help a reader, already familiar with Vonnegut, understand more about the writer, and the ideas behind his novels. However, I would recomend that a first time reader pick up one of Vonegut's actual novels (Slaughter House five and Mother Night are higly recomended) before looking at this. I would recomend this book to an avid Vonegut reader/fan.

Although you'd never guess it from the title, Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons is a collection of essays, speeches, and reviews from Kurt Vonnegut - along with one piece of fiction and one interview. Certainly, it isn't on par with his wonderful fiction (or even his marvelous non-fiction book, Fates Worse Than Death), but neither does it pretend to be. This is a book for those who have already read most of what else Kurt Vonnegut has written. The reviews are nothing to write home about, though some of the essays are quite good - but his public speeches, as always, make for excellent reading. There is a handful of them in here. The highlight of the book, though, for any Vonnegut fan is his long interview with Playboy magazine that closes the book. It's an essential read for any KV fan. I reccommend this book to those who love Kurt Vonnegut and his fiction, and know it. If you're not familar with this quite amusing author, you should pick up some of his marvelous fiction first...

Again, Kurt Vonnegut produces an excellent work of art through literature. This book, Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons (Opinions) is a collection of essays written by Vonnegut. It took me only a few hours to begin and finish this book while drinking coffee in front of a coffee shop on a Saturday morning. I found the book to be highly entertaining, generously humorous, and, of course, packed with blithe satire.

Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons (Opinions) exists in an aura of surreality, recounting the experiences had by Vonnegut. The preface, itself, explains that the novel contains situations related to ideas that are not only abnormal but not tangible, either. The word wampeter comes from Vonnegut's book, Cat's Cradle (see my review of Cat's Cradle at http://preview.epinions.com/book-review-5DE0-39E4406-397F4030-prod6 ), and it describes any "object around which the lives of many otherwise unrelated people may revolve". This definition, alone, prompts the reader to realize that the book will involve many exemplifications of abstract ideology.

The novel contains essays describing events and satiring politics and societal figures. Vonnegut is one of the world's greatest black-humorists, and it is expected that he will try to offend quite a few persons while writing his works. Thus, Vonnegut's writing may not be for the light-hearted, and if this means you, then maybe you should not rush out to the bookstore and buy this book. However, if you dare to delve into the depths of derogatory literature, then this should be your next book. Another book I need to recommend -- completely unrelated to Vonnegut, but very much on my mind since I purchased it off Amazon is "The Losers' Club" by Richard Perez, an exceptional, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.

Hilarious, frightening, saddening, moving. I love this book and open it often, just to dip in and out, when I need some Vonnegutian insight and humor. It collects his nonfiction from 1965 through 1973, and the contents comprise one gem after another. You find KV expounding on subjects he hasn't engaged elsewhere, like murder (the Cape Cod serial killer Tony Costa), yachting ("Brief Encounters on the Inland Waterway"), and popular spiritualism (the once-notorious Madame Blavatsky). Since many of the pieces date from the late '60s and early '70s, you find him also expressing his own version of disgust and moral outrage at the various wars of attrition then being fought by America and other nations. Then there are the incisive speeches, the modest tributes to the unsung, and a classic Playboy interview. The reviewers are correct who say this collection is more for the Vonnegut fan than the casual or uninitiated reader, but once you've crossed the line from observer to fan, "Wampeters" will flesh out your experience of KV's fiction in surprising ways.

I have been a big fan of Vonnegut since reading Breakfast of Champions. This book, tho one of his most obscure, is an exceptional collections of all sorts of things Vonnegut has undertaken throughout the years. For me this book was the ultimate bathroom reader with pieces ranging from 2-30 pages. His Playboy interview is the gem of the book.

This book offers my idea of the essential quick-reading; short, quip-loaded, quasi-autobigraphical chapters on the life and mind of Vonnegut. Particularly memorable is his "On my own death", a three-paged pontification on the remembrance of dead authors. A must-read for any Vonnegut afficionado, and an enjoyable collection of anecdotes for the bathroom or bedtime reader!

I had forgotten how much I liked vonnegut. if you haven't read him in a while, and don't care to read or reread one of his novels, this is the book for you. get the straight dope from the mans mouth in the many interviews. I found myself bumping around from section to section haphazardly, and then realizing that I had finished it all. its just that scattered.

The three words relate to lies, general screwups, and artificial families such as fraternities or the army, and are based on Father Kurt's creation Bokonanism from "Cat's Cradle". These essays are a look into the mind of a true original and should not be ignored. Highly recommended from one who has read every Vonnegut novel and essay he could get his hands on!

So here we have the first of what has become a bit of an obsession for Vonnegut: the autobiographical collage. This version is a bit better than the later entries, though, since it puts more emphasis on worldview-articles and less on endless ramblings of Vonnegut history and "what's on my mind today" type of things. Best of all is a trip to Burma during the revolution that ranks amongst the half a dozen best short pieces he's ever written. By itself, that piece is worth the price of admission. But with a few other good bits and pieces, this becomes a nice rest stop for Vonnegut fans, but little else. Perhaps if Vonnegut would truly throw himself into these works, and write some gut-wrenching auto-bio, I would be more convinced. But I always feel like he's holding back, and only putting out as much as he has to. Try this, Kurt: Re-read the Burma piece, and approach the rest of your life with the same passion

You love Vonnegut, you love this book. Only he is capable of the gallows humor you see hear and it's nice that his humor is able to bring out the actuality of life in a way that is seldom realized for its irony.