Synopsis
Nominated for the Hugo Award in 1964, Kurt Vonnegut's sprawling and brilliant fourth novel turns a bleakly satiric eye on science, technology, religion, politics, and the end of the world. At the center of the tale is the fictional physicist Felix Hoenikker, an inventor of the nuclear bomb, who, in an attempt to eliminate mud for military vehicles, invents a substance called Ice-9 that causes a chain reaction that allows water to freeze at normal temperatures. This apocalyptic substance is split between his three children who use it as a bartering chip to achieve their selfish ends. Eventually, the narrator (ostensibly researching Hoenikker) and Hoenikker's children wind up on a Caribbean island run by a demented dictator seeking to squash the native religion of Bokonism. The novel is filled with irreverent riffs and ingenious tangents, as Vonnegut exposes the underlying inanity of human nature: the read is enjoyable and lively, but laced with dark and devastating truths. Total catastrophe has never been so funny...or so absurdly tragic.
| Details | | Publication Date: | 1997-01-01 | | Edition Description: | Reissue |
| Size | | Height: | 6.8 in | | Width: | 4.3 in | | Thickness: | 0.5 in | | Weight: | 3.2 oz |
Publisher's Note
CAT'S GRADLE is Vonneguts satirical commentary on modern man and his madness. An apocalyptic tale of this planets ultimate fate, it features a midget as the protagonist; a complete, original theology created by a calypso singer; and a vision of the future that is at once blackly fatalistic and hilariously funny. A book that left an indelible mark on an entire generation of readers. Cats Cradle is one of this century's most important works... and Vonnegut at his very best.
Industry Reviews
"'Cat's Cradle' is an irreverent and often highly entertaining fantasy concerning the playful irresponsibility of nuclear scientists. Like the best contemporary satire, it is work of a far more engaging and meaningful order than the melodramatic tripe which most critics seem to consider 'serious.'"
New York Times Book Review - Terry Southern (06/02/1963)
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