Cat's Cradle

by Kurt Vonnegut

Red background Cover, Authors name in white lettering, Title of book in black letters, with coverart in center of book. (read review)

Top tags: fictionscience fictionsatirehumorkurt vonnegut (all tags)

 

Member Reviews

  • Tinky
    2 of 2 members found this review helpful.
    • Rated 4 stars

    One of his most popular novels, and one of his personal favorites.

    I don't intend this as a negative criticism, but Vonnegut's novels are less individual, memorable works of art than links in a chain, an ongoing, endlessly looping conversation. The subject rarely changes, each book blends together in the memory, the details dissolve, and what one is left with is the palpable sense of the chief character throughout - Vonnegut himself, with his wonderful narrative voice, bracingly humane, skeptical, and wryly funny.

    Tinky wrote this review Saturday, April 19 2008. ( reply | permalink )
  • Michael G
    1 of 1 members found this review helpful.
    • Rated 5 stars

    "see a cat?? see a cradle??" I often think of this quote from the book in daily life situations. vonneguts irony at its best. very great book.

    Michael G wrote this review Tuesday, February 19 2008. ( reply | view 1 replies | permalink )
  • ROWENA W
    • Rated 2 stars

    Cat's Cradle is about a man going on a journey to find information about the creator of the atomic bomb. He starts to talk with Angela, the daughter of the creator. Her father created iced nine that can freeze the whole ocean or anything that is a liquid. They talk to each other through mail. The narrator goes to Illium where the atomic bomb was created. They then go to an island, where everyone was really poor. I thought that this book wasn't that great because there wasn't any real problem. The narrator mainly talks about his journey to find information.

    ROWENA W wrote this review 2 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • EILEEN Z
    • Rated 0 stars

    out of all three summer book i read i like cat's cradle the most. it was the most interesting one in my opinion. John wants to write a book about what happen during the atomic bomb was dropped. the creator of the atomic bomb was felix and he didnt really care much about his child

    EILEEN Z wrote this review 2 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • LUCY C
    • Rated 4 stars

    This fictional story centers on the actions taken by one group of people whom the main character, John, believes is with him in his role of events dictated by the god of his religion. John sets out to gather material for a book he is going to write; about the actions of the people around the scientist who made the atom bomb on the day it was dropped. He travels the world for their account of Dr. Hoenikker and what they thought of him, as the man is dead at the beginning of the story. The deviation from history becomes obvious when the characters speak of the creation of ice-nine, and its eventual impact on the world.
    This book shows a possible path of how our history could have gone had one "innocent" scientist continued his research into the mysteries of ice-nine. My favorite conversation in the book takes place after the first successful use of the bomb, "Science has now known sin" then the reply by Dr. Hoenikker, "What is sin?"

    LUCY C wrote this review 2 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • JENNY A
    • Rated 2 stars

    Overall this book was alright. I really liked the book in the beginning, but it got bland towards the middle. Towards the middle of the story, it got really confusing. I had to re-read many parts of the book to get a grasp on what was going on. I felt too many things were going on and it was hard to follow. Although this book was all over the place, I found the plot of this book really creative. I felt the book could've been developed better.

    JENNY A wrote this review 2 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • Dylan Y
    • Rated 2 stars

    I found this book to be disappointing compared to other Vonnegut works such as Slaughter House 5. Although the satire is still there the book, in my opinion, is not able to deliver the message it is trying to deliver. Although I understood the message of nuclear destruction that Vonnegut was trying to get through to the reader I thought that the message was overshadowed by extravagant characters and an obscene plot.

    Dylan Y wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • ALEKSANDAR G
    • Rated 4 stars

    VERY STRANGE, WHEN YOU READ THIS BOOK YOU DONT REALLY CARE MUCH FOR THE OVERALL STORY BECAUSE YOU'RE CAUGHT UP IN THE MOMENT, SINCE EACH CHAPTER IS ABOUT A PAGE APART, AND NONE OF THEM REALLY FOCUS ON THE GRAND SCHEME OF THINGS, INSTEAD THERE'S A QUICK SCENARIO THAT IS OFTEN QUITE FUNNY, AND ONLY IN THE END YOU REALIZE HOW IT C]ALL COMES TOGETHER.

    ALEKSANDAR G wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • MALISA B
    • Rated 1 stars

    Cat's Cradle was about a man named John who called himself Jonah. This book is different from other books I have read because it deals with science, and historical events such as the tragedy that occured in Pearl Harbor. It revolves around the adventure of Jonah looking for ice-nine an incredibe substance created by a scientist named Dr. Hoenikker. In addition, as I read along the book, I realized religion was incoorperated throughout the story, and what religion really meant. The religion of Bokononism was introduced in the story. It explains the idea that all the beliefs of the religion are made up, and that every follower of this religion knows it is made up, but they chose to follow it because of this. In addition, it compares the relationship between science and religion which is a very controversial topic. The story itself is based on science, but as I read along, it controdicts itself because most of the story is unbelieveable.
    I did not enjoy this story as much as I thought I would, because of other people's reviews. Many people liked it, but I was only confused when I was finished reading the story. I didnt find a main theme throughout the story, instead, I found minor themes that were included troughout

    MALISA B wrote this review 4 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
  • BRIAN B
    • Rated 0 stars

    this book really made me think about religion and government in a very critical way. It made me question why we need government and religion in human existance. Neither are perfect or even close to being perfect. They end up causing more strife and pain than they actually fix. Bokonon says that government and religion are a bunch of lies. He even writes a book making a perfect religion and says in the beginning that everything he is about to say are lies. He means that religion and government cause people to think about things that are not really worth thinking about because it doesnt do any good to think about them. This book really causes you to challenge the bariers created by society

    BRIAN B wrote this review 5 days ago. ( reply | permalink )
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