Book Reviews - Slapstick and Around the World in 80 days.

Last week I finished “Around the World in 80 days” by Jules Verne and “Slapstick” by Kurt Vonnegut. Around the World was a nice little book. I can see how it would be very popular in its time; however, today, television and movies have taken away from the intrigue of distant lands. Nevertheless, it was generally well-written and fun. Although it was short and could be read very quickly, I found that it could not have sustained itself for much longer. Overall, I give it a C+ and would recommend it to older children and those who just want a quick escape.

“Slapstick” which was almost (and should have been) called “Lonesome No More” was another fun book. Kurt Vonnegut is clearly my favorite author and I find his style to be inspiring and poetic. There have been several Vonnegut books that have another style as Slapstick, namely that the story starts right after a very interesting thing happened or predicts something very interesting is about to happen, and then never rally goes into in and subtly makes the story about something else. For example, in the first few pages on Slapstick, you find the main character is the hideously ugly ex-president of the United States, living in the remains of the Empire State Building, avoiding the Green Death, and stashing thousands of candlesticks. Of course, by the end of the book, none of this is very important at all. Slapstick is just average for a Vonnegut book (it lacked the deeper beauty and philosophy that many of his other books have), and overall I would rate it a B. Hi-ho!