Product Description

This collection of Vonnegut's short masterpieces share his audacious sense of humor and extraordinary creative vision.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #3161 in Books
• Published on: 1998-09-08
• Released on: 1998-09-08
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

From Publishers Weekly
Starred Review. Listeners are in for a treat as a masterful cast animates many of Vonnegut's finest short pieces. Vonnegut colors his oft-wondrous works with memorable characters, fantastic realities, pitch-perfect dialogue and heapings of satire and humor—a tall order for any audio actor. But this group of narrators are veterans of screen and stage, each with a unique voice as malleable as clay. It's hard to find fault with this production. Occasionally, Tucci and Irwin oversoften their voices, and listeners may find themselves reaching for the volume. Otherwise, there are very few blemishes. Baker is outstanding in "All the King's Horses" and "The Hyannis Port Story." Strathairn shines on "Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog" and "The Lie." Tucci handles with ease the predominantly male pieces "Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son" and "Manned Missiles." Irwin inhabits every character. The robust Roberts is both commanding and wry. Given the fertile material and the collective talent of the cast, listeners should expect nothing less than excellence here. They won't be disappointed. Available in paperback from Dell. (June)
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From the Publisher
Welcome To The Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnueguts shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, what these superb stories share is Vonnegut's audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.

From the Inside Flap
This collection of Vonnegut's short masterpieces share his audacious sense of humor and extraordinary creative vision.

Customer Reviews

Perfect Timing
I purchased this book as a gift for my husband. It arrived on time, and the book was such a great read, my husband purchased another book from the same author as soon as he finished this one.

Good service
I received my book promptly, however it was missing its front cover, which had not been mentioned in the description. I contacted the seller and they promptly refunded my money. I would have been happier to get a book with a cover, but a prompt refund was a good response from the seller.

You'll never look at the game of chess the same
Vonnegut's vision of the future in the story "Harrison Bergeron" has haunted me since I first read it in 5th grade. So it's surprising to me that I hadn't read anything else by him until this year. Luckily, many of his other stories in "Welcome to the Monkey House" were just as fascinating or twisted or surreal.

Several of the tales included seemed to be autobiographical, and were often very simple, without much point but with a lot of feeling. One involved a play which he directed when he cast someone from town who nobody would ever think would be able to act and a girl who looked perfect for the role, and the night of the play he gets quite a surprise from both. It was written simply and very fun to read.

Of his fiction, many stories stand out in my memory. There was on that was narrated by a man who could leave his body and inhabit others, and it tells of a war between the people who had this ability and those who did not. Vonnegut boiled down a complex world into just a few pages and was able to convey the perspective perfectly so that I felt as though I knew exactly what it would be like to live outside of my own body.

My absolute favorite involved a chess match where the pieces were real people commanded by a general who was the king piece. Without giving much away, anytime a piece was lost to the other side, the person playing as that piece would be killed. An incredibly intense story, it had my heart beating out of my chest as I tried to force myself not to flip to the end and find out how everything was resolved.

Of course, as with nearly every compilation of short stories I've read, there were a few tales that didn't quite jive with my tastes, but thankfully the writing was still descriptive and colorful and efficient enough that I whizzed through those fairly quickly and was able to get on to the stories I enjoyed more.

One thing I know for sure after reading "Welcome to the Monkey House" is that I'll definitely be reading more Vonnegut in the future.