Product Description

Vonnegut’s first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a super computer and run completely by machines. Paul’s rebellion is vintage Vonnegut–wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #9060 in Books
• Published on: 1999-01-12
• Released on: 1999-01-12
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 352 pages

Review
First novel by Kurt Vonnegut, published in 1952 and reissued in 1954 as Utopia 14. This anti-utopian novel employs the standard science-fiction formula of a futuristic world run by machines and of one man's futile rebellion against that world. -- The Merriam-Webster Encyclopedia of Literature

From the Publisher
Vonnegut's spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines.

From the Inside Flap
Vonnegut's spins the chilling tale of  engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live  in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run  completely by machines.


From the Paperback edition.

Customer Reviews

A stellar debut for Vonnegut
The great Kurt Vonnegut's first novel is, well, great.

This was nothing short of excellent; a strong cast of characters and a vividly imagined world, yes, but where Player Piano really shines is in its rich social commentary. In this world, America has established a sort of minor utopia of ease within which regular, everyday people don't have to do much of anything. Everything is done for them.

And boy does that make people miserable.

At times funny, at times heavy with satire, and at times straight and serious, Vonnegut manages to keep all the plates spinning at once. Dr. Paul Proteus is a near perfect protagonist, even though he doesn't DO much of anything really. He's just along for the ride, observing the modern world in which he lives and realizing that a life of ease and convenience has a down side. And what an ending!

Player Piano makes it clear that Vonnegut was mining gold from the very start.

Convential debut - not Vonnegut's best, but still worth reading
Vonnegut's debut novel, published in 1952, is a little constrained. There are hints of Vonnegut's sardonic wit, wild imagination, and unconventional writing style, but only hints. Unlike virtually all of Vonnegut's other novels, Player Piano tells its story in a linier fashion. It starts at the beginning and ends at the end. There's nothing really wrong with that, but for fans of the author, accustomed to Vonnegut's eccentric voice, it feels a little too conventional.

Vonnegut is a humanitarian and the message of Player Piano is that people need to have a sense of purpose, and that if you take that away from them - their lives will be empty. Throughout the novel, a leader from another country tours the cities of the United States and having no similar word in his own language, confuses `civilians' for `slaves'. The message of course, is that the civilians, in this machine dominated world, are in-fact slaves.

Similarities between this novel and Brave New World are inevitable, as both novels explore the relationship between technology and happiness, and the role class structure plays in our society. In both Player Piano and Brave New World, the protagonist is unfulfilled by the trappings of the privileged class and longs for something `real'. Player Piano is arguably more hopeful than Brave New World (and certainly 1984) suggesting that people will band together to fight for their freedom, however futile, even if it means that they are doomed to repeat the same mistakes again.

Player Piano is admittedly dated. It is evident from this novel, and others of the era, that people were wary of the advent of computers and the proliferation of machines and technology. As for predicting the future, neither Brave New World nor Player Piano (nor 1984 for that matter) proved to be a reliable crystal ball. These novels are far more reflective of the times they were written and the author's commentary on those times, than of any actual or likely future.

Player Piano is far from Vonnegut's best. Cat's Cradle and Slaughter House Five are two of the best novels ever written and there are close to a half dozen other Vonnegut novels (he wrote 14) I would recommend before Player Piano, but it's still worth reading.

3 ½ stars (almost four).

My first look at corporate america
I had the pleasure of reading this book while I was studying Computer Science at Rensselaer Polytechnic. This book is very well written and the story is fantastic. One of my favorite parts of the book is when the engineer engineers himself out of his own job. Classic! kind of remind me of my last IT project.