User Reviews
Rating: really liked it
Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut is a collection of short stories from the 50s and 60s and demonstrates Vonnegut’s tremendous range as a writer.
I have read one critic who did not like Vonnegut, saying that all of his novels are essentially the same, with his voice and tone narrating each new set of facts. I agreed somewhat, but still liked the way he writes and have enjoyed every one of his works I have read.
The stories in this collection, however, written earlier than most of his novels, displays a great variety of themes and models, and though Vonnegut’s signature humor is evident in many, he shows a different, often more emotional side in many stories.
“Harrison Bergeron”, the dystopian classic, is undoubtedly the most recognizable of these shorts, but several others have clearly been influential to other writers and filmmakers. “Welcome to the Monkey House” and “Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow” both address over population, but from Vonnegut’s unique perspective.
Several stories speak to Vonnegut’s stance on demilitarization and illuminating the idiocy of industrial war making. Stories like “D.P.”, “Adam”, and “Next Door”, though, originally published in Ladies Home Journal and Cosmopolitan, reveal an unguarded sentimentality and humanity that is not as evident in much of Vonnegut’s later works.
A very good read.
**** 2019 re-read
Kurt Vonnegut’s 1968 anthology of previously published short stories is a good introduction to his earlier work. Most of these were written in the 50s and early 60s and represent a more mainstream side of him that many of his fans and those not yet accustomed to his work would not readily recognize.
Actually, I was struck by how much like Ray Bradbury many of these were. Stories like “Who am I this time?” and “The Foster Portfolio” could have been penned by Ray. Makes me wonder how much of an influence RB was on. KV.
Stories that stand out this time around are “The Hyannis Port Story” which I remember liking before and “Deer in the Works” which was likely connected to his work on his novel Player Piano.
Most endearing was “D.P.” which was first published in the August 1953 edition of the Ladies Home Journal is about a little boy in Germany, after the second world war. He has brown skin and blue eyes and the sisters in the orphanage and the local villagers accept that he is likely the offspring of a German girl and an American soldier. When a group of US soldiers visit the area, he takes to one of the men who must surely be his papa.
Rating: really liked it
A Compendium of Curmudgeonly HumourKurt Vonnegut is a curmudgeon. Curmudgeons are often misunderstood and taken for irascible pedants. On the contrary, they are anything but pedantic. Curmudgeons are introverts who are simply tired of adapting themselves to the demands of an extrovert world. They want to be left alone. Which is why they occasionally write or say nasty things to annoy people. The hope is that other people will then have something to talk about with each other and give the curmudgeon some peace.
A curmudgeon like Vonnegut is the opposite of a totalitarian. A curmudgeon knows the world around him and its imperfections through direct experience. But he is wary of turning his opinions, of which he has many, into policies. This is just as well because his opinions are anything but consistent. He has learned over the years that consistency is indeed the sign of a trivial mind which would like to impose order on a universe that is inherently chaotic.
Curmudgeons are male by definition because they fear the power of women and have no defences against it. Female power arises from the inherent male incompetence in things like communication and relationship-building. Sisterhood is a mystery which manifests to him as a hive-mind and he dares not mess with it. The curmudgeon knows he is deficient and relies on women to suffer frustration and annoyance in his presence. He is aware of this sufferance and, as a mark of respect, neither contradicts nor criticises his female companions. They in turn accept the deal as the best they are likely to get and desist from all attempts to improve him.
A curmudgeon is not without charm in certain situations, primarily those in which he is forced to respond to the opinions - usually political, but sometimes anthropological - of others, particularly blowhards and dilettantes. In such circumstances his remarks are likely intended not to convince but to undermine. He perceives this as healthy cynicism. The charm emanates from the fact that he doesn’t mind what anyone else thinks of him. The combination of the unexpected and the absence of obvious banality helps.
Rating: really liked it
Every epoch tells its stories its own way and
Kurt Vonnegut managed to catch the spirit of the last midcentury perfectly…
The Year was 2081, and everybody was finally equal. They weren’t only equal before God and the law. They were equal every which way. Nobody was smarter than anybody else. Nobody was better looking than anybody else. Nobody was stronger or quicker than anybody else.
The absolute conformity is a paradise for politicians…
The tales may be mockingly dystopian, vaguely romantic or just everyday life scenes but everything is tinted with a slenderly blackish humour and somewhat bitter irony. And every story exudes an inimitable psychedelic aura…
“Now I understand you poor fish,” I said. “You couldn’t get along without fear. That’s the only skill you’ve got – how to scare yourselves and other people into doing things. That’s the only fun you’ve got, watching people jump for fear of what you’ll do to their bodies or take away from their bodies.”
Time passes: some things change and some things remain the same.
Rating: really liked it
Canada's iconic Toronto Star columnist Greg Clark said it best (in his characteristically plucky way): MAY YOUR FIRST LOVE BE YOUR LAST!
So it goes. Cause a long time relationship is a lot like Bobby Fischer facing off against Boris Spasky: for each of them had MEMORIZED EVERY MOVE THE OTHER COULD EVER MAKE.
Cold War? Forget that - their cold-blooded war was INFINITELY ICIER!
So it is with a marriage, when each partner makes calculated moves.
And as it was too with Kurt Vonnegut's first marriage.
Yikes!
So it's no wonder that my personal fave from among these pieces is the idyllic description of the HONEYMOON YEARS of that marriage. BTW - that came, as it often does, before those notorious HONEYDEW years (Honey, Do this - Honey, Do that)!
But could the disruptive static between his parents have contributed to his literary star son's equally disruptive instability? Did for me.
For as I so relish Kurt's blissful HONEYMOON years, so I adored my parent's loving one-year-old wedded bliss - something my stable siblings never knew!
But the inevitable advent of family stress needs a release.
So when my bro was born, when I was three, the sudden sibling suspicions crackled through the air with the fractious friction they produced. Cain and Abel!
And so little Fergus gradually regressed to the awfully overaffective Asperger’s position on the Autism spectrum. I became denser than a block of cement.
I drove my dear longsuffering Dad to despair in his patient efforts to make a man out of me.
My own and the Vonneguts' son Mark's only release by late adolescence was psychotropically-induced dementia!
Ah, those crazy pot-headed seventies! For that was our catalyst.
Enough to MAIM a good kid.
And so, when I eventually returned to normalcy -
It was HEAVEN.
This is a marvellous collection of Vonnegut's early fictional shorts, written back in the carefree days before the Black Dog of clinical depression showed up on his doorstep with a sign around his neck.
Feed me! Feed me, the sign said.
The postmodern havoc of escalating bad news'll do that to a guy.
So why, may I ask, was Vonnegut now more prolific than before - after adopting that mangy cur?
Bottom line, I guess, is that while earlier he wrote to make a few extra bucks -
NOW HE WROTE ONLY TO SAVE HIS SOUL.
Rating: really liked it
This is a master class in the art of short story writing. Every short story is finely crafted. Many have humor, many have heartbreak, many have subtle romance.
Almost all have commentary on society, especially American society, that is as relevant today as it was in the 1950s.
What are these stories missing?
You reader. It's missing you to unlock their meaning and beauty.
Rating: really liked it
The world is overpopulated, and they have Ethical Suicide Parlors, where public minded citizens are encouraged to go in and get a lethal injection from the attractive hostesses. There's a big thermometer outside, showing how many people there currently are in the world.
So the guy comes in, and he's chatting with the hostess. He wants to know how much the mercury will go down if he decides to do it. A foot?
No, she says.
An inch?
Not quite, she says.
Suddenly, he changes his tone. Every inch, he says, represents seventeen million people.
That's not the right way to look at it, she says. But she doesn't say what is the right way to look at it.
Ever since reading this story as a teenager, I've been unable to take anyone seriously who uses the expression "That's not the right way to look at it". Not my fault. Blame the late Mr. Vonnegut.
Rating: really liked it
Welcome to the Monkey House is the best collection of stories I've read.
Rating it accurately is as difficult as ever. Should it be based off of the best stories? Or all of them? I don't know.
What I do know is: Harrison Bergeron, Welcome to the Monkey House, Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow, EPICAC, Where I Live, and The Euphio Question are some of the best shorts ever written.
Much like Vonnegut's other novels, they're strangely scientific with quirky characters, great dialogue, and plenty of comedic moments.
The rest of the stories weren't so great to write about. Some of them are pretty out there, though, if that's your thing...
Rating: really liked it
[I know this exactly because I've tried Euphi
Rating: really liked it
Twenty-five short stories from the 50s and 60s of which I'd say more than two-thirds were top-notch. Some of my faves were -
Who I am This Time?, Welcome to the Monkey House, Miss Temptation, More Stately Mansions, All the King's Horses, Go Back to your Precious Wife and Son, & The Manned Missiles. Nothing overly complex about these stories, told in a nice crisp accessible prose, with such a diverse range of themes throughout; from war to contemporary settings of house makeovers, the theatre, bathroom salesman, charmed love, juvenile delinquents, and private schools; to sci-fi stories of anti-aging potions, games of human chess, ethical birth Control pills, and air force pilots rocketed to space. And, of course, it wouldn't be Vonnegut without a big dollop of his brilliant slick satire. This was my ninth book of his, and I'd put it in my top three - for now anyway. Also worth saying, there are writers who I don't think much of as human beings but I still love their work, whereas with KVJ he was absolutely one of the good guys you'd so want to be pals with.
Rating: really liked it
1982 January 6
2014 October 3
Where I Live - Keenly observed. I wonder what an update would be like 50 years on?
Harrison Bergeron - This one has aged a bit, but it's still good.
Who Am I This Time? - I vividly recall the American Playhouse production with Susan Sarandon and Christopher Walken. Magic.
Welcome to the Monkey House - Likewise aged, not that there aren't people who would be delighted to see the sex drive killed for everyone else, but those people tend not to be in favor of birth control or assisted suicide.
Long Walk to Forever - This is the story that made me want to reread the collection particularly.
"A walk?" said Catharine.
"One foot in front of the other,"said Newt,"Through leaves,over bridges--"
Vonnegut repeats that line "through leaves, over bridges" several times, and it is amazing how much emotion he manages to convey in that utterly prosaic phrase. It kills me. As does Vonnegut's preferred title, "Hell to Get Along With", which should probably be the title of every proposal story ever.
The Foster Portfolio - Heh.
Miss Temptation - "I’m not Yellowstone Park!” she said. “I’m not supported by taxes! I don’t belong to everybody! You don’t have any right to say anything about the way I look!”
Vonnegut understands and conveys, in 1956 mind you,a point which still continues to elude many supposed adults even today.
All the King's Horses - A rather dark musing on war, but not too dark.
Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog - Just perfectly amusing.
New Dictionary - Would go well paired with David Foster Wallace's review of dictionaries.
Next Door - Oh, my.
More Stately Mansions - This is another one that has lived long in my memory. It's a very kind and accepting and loving sort of story about a quirky, possibly annoying-as-hell character. And also, the obsession with having the perfect home has only become stronger and more widespread.
The Hyannis Port Story - Another really sweet story that still manages to be cynical and funny.
D.P. - Vonnegut writes children so well, so real. Not at all like Salinger's improbable paragons. A most unusual war story.
Report on the Barnhouse Effect - Interesting to compare this with LeGuin's
Lathe of Heaven in focus and tone and characterization.
The Euphio Question - Amusingly presented.
Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son - Oh, I love this, the contrast between the couples, the shower enclosure. Why doesn't anyone write stories from the point of view of storm window installers these days?
Deer in the Works - I'd say this one has exerted a small but deeply felt influence over my whole world view.
The Lie - Vonnegut can be warmly sympathetic to unlikely characters.
Unready to Wear - No question that I love this story.
The Kid Nobody Could Handle - An appreciation of the importance of finding one's home, in every sense.
The Manned Missiles - Perhaps the world didn't go this way because Vonnegut warned us against it? Interesting note: he thinks Earth will look green from space.
EPICAC - Unlike some of his peers, Vonnegut can easily imagine a brilliant mathematician who happens to be a woman.
Adam - Another sweet story that isn't sentimental at all.
Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow - Boy was the population explosion a big deal.
It's been more than 30 years since I first read this book, and a while since I've read anything else by Vonnegut. But rereading, I can't help notice how completely I've absorbed the Vonnegut mindset into my own. Most of my favorite authors these days I love for their humanism, their warmth, their sympathy, and their humor. Most of that must have come from Vonnegut, since I can't recall any one else I read in high school who was similar, except Douglas Adams. These are not bad people to have been raised by.
Kindle library copy
Rating: really liked it
A work of art, it belongs in the adorably perfect short story collections as those by Ray Bradbury and J. G. Ballard: yes, apocalypse; yes, spirituality; yes sci-fi and yes A PROPHET*. Only those writing with an eye to an uncertain yet not wholly unpredictable future (society limits individualism) can be considered amazing if they possess this attribute. I mean, Nostradamus as short story master? C'mon. Yet in all 25 stories, Vonnegut rarely repeats himself (except for gee-whiz! Easter eggs, such as: lo-tech science fiction a-la Eternal Sunshine and notable motifs like the play Death of a Salesman, radio entertainment, jobs, Wyandotte College, the name Sousa ; the first entry is geographical biography, the last one is a futuristic comedy), he is rarely overly sentimental, but always smart, precise, perfect*.
The diversity of genre, characterization***, dialogue, epochs... the imagination is vast and its no wonder every modern writer at one time or another decided to be like him, or not. But consider him they did, do, will. Welcome to the Monkey House****, we were warned.
*In MISS TEMPTATION we have beginnings of the straight male paranoia that ensued due to MeToo#...written in 1956! ...My favorite short story, D.P., and THE LIE all handle racism with such ease, because, well, these were all written in the 50's, and its chilling to see how much privilege vs. poverty/working/hardlife lifelong workers. I found out that rich Republicans love the term "democratic nation" since it evokes a type of humbling that's alien to them
**Page 115 , close to the book's center: "Have I made it clear that this book is a beauty?" --NEW DICTIONARY
***Characters' vernacular are uniquely their own! Funny, fragile, tragic, cuckoo... You find so many individuals, like a mid-century SciFi vanity fair!
****The titular short story, included with classics of literature "A Rose for Emily" by Faulkner and O'Brien's "A Good Man is Hard to Find", are precursor to horror cinema firmly rooted in our own American fears (which may be something similar to: BECOMING THE MACHINE FOR THE MACHINE)
Rating: really liked it
Vonnegut does a wonderful job with a short story and while most stories were "okay" to "yeah, I liked it I guess", it's definitely worth it for the few 4 to 5 star ratings.
"Where I Live" (Venture- Traveler’s World, October 1964) - 2/5 Kinda boring and no real plot. Just meandering
"Harrison Bergeron" (The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction, October 1961) - 5/5 Loved this one - science fiction - Handicapping people so everything is fair and no one can take unfair advantage because of their looks, intelligence, physical prowess, etc. Sad but true and hilarious at the same time - exactly what Vonnegut does best.
"Who Am I This Time?" (The Saturday Evening Post, 16 December 1961) - 3/5 A play that I guess Vonnegut had to put on (Street Car Named Desire). I don't know if it's a true story or what, but it sounded autobiographical. Main actor who acts amazingly in everything and duddy female actor who he is able to bring out of her shell.
"Welcome to the Monkey House" (Playboy, January 1968) - 4/5 - Another science fiction story where the world is overpopulated and there exists a mandatory pill called "ethical birth control" that doesn't make it impossible to have children (the ethical part), but makes you numb from the waist down. Another sad but true, although I don't quite agree with the jab against religion in this one.
"Long Walk to Forever" (Ladies Home Journal, August 1960) - 3/5 A military man visits a woman he's in love with and who's about to get married.
"The Foster Portfolio" (Collier's Magazine, 8 September 1951) - 2/5 Nothing really exciting here. A financial consultant consults a man who's reasons for how he manages his money are more than they seem.
"Miss Temptation" (The Saturday Evening Post, April 21 1956) - 3/5 An actress struts her stuff, but is brought down for no reason she can help.
"All the King's Horses" (Collier's Magazine, 10 Feb 1951) - 5/5 A game of chess becomes a game of survival. Definitely one of the best of the collection
"Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog" (Collier's Magazine, 14 March 1953) - 4/5 A funny story about a really annoying "me monster" (Brian Regen) who corners a man in the park.
"New Dictionary" (The New York Times, October 1966) - 3/5 Who hasn't looked up dirty words in the dictionary? :)
"Next Door" (Cosmopolitan, April 1955) -4/5 Pretty funny story about a kid who hears fighting next door and tries to help. Assume makes a what out of whom?
"More Stately Mansions" (Collier's Magazine, 22 December 1951) - 3/5 Quaint story about interior decorating.
"The Hyannis Port Story" - 3/5 Secret Service calls a Commodore Rumfoord (a name that comes up a few times in Vonnegut's work) about his son. Rumfoord is not a big Kennedy fan.
"D.P." (Ladies Home Journal, August 1953) - 3/5 A kid in a prison camp meets his "father".
"Report on the Barnhouse Effect" (Collier's Magazine, 11 February 1950) - 3/5 - SciFi - Barnhouse is a scientist who discovers an interesting talent he has.
"The Euphio Question" (Collier's Magazine, 12 May 1951) - 4/5 - SciFi - An interesting discovery leads to "happiness" although it's more than you bargain for.
"Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son" (Ladies Home Journal, July 1962) - 3/5 A famous actress and her fifth husband have some work done on their bathroom.
"Deer in the Works" (Esquire, April 1955) 3.5/5 An owner of a newspaper decides he needs something more secure and gets hired on at a large corporation. Say bye bye to your freedom.
"The Lie" (The Saturday Evening Post 24 February 1962) - 3.5/5 About a father's excitement for his son to enter boarding school.
"Unready to Wear" (Galaxy Science Fiction, April 1953) - 4/5 - SciFi - Bodies are really just a pain in the neck aren't they?
"The Kid Nobody Could Handle" (The Saturday Evening Post, 24 September 1955) - 2/5 A boy who's been neglected all his life acts out. Actions speak louder than words.
"The Manned Missiles" (Cosmopolitan, July 1958) - 4/5 This was a really emotional tale about two astronauts' fathers writing each other whose sons recently died.
"EPICAC" (Collier's Magazine, 25 November 1950) - 4/5 - SciFi - Our narrator has a discussion with the smartest machine in the world.
"Adam" (Cosmopolitan, April 1954) - 3/5 - This one was definitely close to home for me, I have a seven month old. Babies are great.
"Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" (Galaxy Science Fiction, January 1954) - 4/5 - SciFi - Another story about overpopulation in the future. In this one, because of a new anti-aging drug, there are so many people, each family lives together for generations and there are no more resources.
Rating: really liked it
This man was a genius!!!! And ---a loving Husband -father! One heck of a decent human being!!!
A few stories were soooooooooooooooooo good, that I was wishing I could 'go-back' and change a few things about my College days. I would have loved to be talking about this book in a College Class. I'm ready now!!!!!
I'm really happy I won this book. I could have missed it. THANK YOU --THANK YOU ---THANK YOU ---to whom ever 'picked' my name as a 'first read'.
I enjoyed reading other reviews --early this morning 3am ...(wonderful).
Here is a little something I'll add which I have not read in other reviews.
The copy of the book (in my hands) ---is "The Special Edition" --"Building The Monkey House" by Gregory D. Sumner. It was a treat 'added' to this book.
I love what he wrote about Kurt Vonnegut:
It was a time when Kurt --himself was having an 'add-on' built to his home. He needed a place for quiet to write. He and his wife had 6 kids. (3 of their own --3 where his sisters after she died). ---
This I the type of man he was: (he had a very unglamorous way about him). He worked hard --'showing-up' for work. He said:
"Mechanics fix automobiles" he once observed. Carpenters build houses. Storytellers use a reader's leisure time in such a way that the reader will not feel that his time has been wasted".
Rating: really liked it
I thought this was a solid collection of Kurt Vonnegut's earlier works. There is a variety of themes and genres. Black humor again is underlying throughout the book except for a few stories. There's science fiction, romance, and interpersonal dramas. Some of them involved military servicemen and possibly reflect the author's own time in the US Army. I listed a few of my favorites:
'Long Walk To Forever' (1960) was a shot at love centered around bad timing. I did not expect this and was pleasantly surprised.
'All The King's Horses" (1953) was a thrilling and captivating story about American POWs downed behind enemy lines. In order to negotiate their release, they are forced to play a dangerous game in order to earn their freedom. This is my favorite!
'The Manned Missiles' (1958) was about two fathers, one Soviet and the other American, writing to each other. In the letters they tell each other about their sons during the Space Race.
After reading lots of Kurt Vonnegut, I can say without doubt I like his early stuff. I find his early stuff way more interesting and original. Overall the book was readable and fun. I highly recommend this to any fans of the author. Thanks!
Rating: really liked it
Put it down for some time after the eponymous "Welcome to the Monkey House." I only speak for myself, but I'm tired of reading about rape, either as a plot device or metaphor. Especially since I read this just after "Sirens of Titan," in which Vonnegut also writes in a detached manner of a character's assault. The character Billy's explanation of his actions was condescending and objectifying, even saying his other victims were "grateful," and asserting Nancy's anger is not because of her violation, but because he is a bad lover. I realize that Vonnegut is using this device to discuss other ideas, but that's not enough for me to enjoy this story. Even re-reading bits for the purpose of this review was a frustrating endeavor. It was enough to put me off Vonnegut for a while.
Nevertheless, I did finally finish the other stories, and am glad I did. The later stories are thoughtful and interesting. Not sure they were enough in the end, however, to redeem this collection for me.
