Book Review - TimeQuake by Kurt Vonnegut

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

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“Ten years of déjà vu all over again!” At least that is what Kurt Vonnegut would have wanted us to believe when he penned what would ultimately be his last full length novel, Time Quake. It’s all classic Vonnegut, as we live and ultimately relive ten years with our aging, bag lady of a protagonist, Kurt’s alter ego, Kilgore Trout.

Of course, it’s always fun and games where Vonnegut is concerned, providing you appreciate his particular political leanings. Vonnegut survived the bombing of Dresden while being held captive by the Germans during WW11. The experience left him bitter and resentful toward the powers that wage war, and rightfully so.



"Many years ago, I was so innocent I still considered it possible that we could become the humane and reasonable America so many members of my generation used to dream of. We dreamed of such an America during the Great Depression, when there were no jobs. And then we fought and often died for that dream during the Second World War, when there was no peace.

But I know now that there is not a chance in hell of America's becoming humane and reasonable. Because power corrupts us, and absolute power corrupts absolutely. Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas".

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt knew Time Quake would be his last full length work, and he takes the opportunity to share his wit in true Vonnegut style. It isn’t always pretty, but then it isn’t always meant to be. Indeed, a world without Vonnegut is a world without his stubborn moral conscience.

Time Quake asks us the proverbial question: What if we could go back ten years and do it all over again? Would we make changes? What if we were forced to turn the clock back ten years, only to repeat the same mistakes we were destined to make the first time? Does man really learn from his mistakes, or do platitudes simply come cheap?

When Kurt past away April 11th, 2007, he left the world a wealth of absurdities. He left us Bokononism and Ice Nine, and more than a handful of unforgettable novels. Time Quake may not have been Kurt’s best work, but it leaves the reader satisfied and longing.
Longing for the days when we could count on Kurt Vonnegut to spin a yarn so wide and so deep, only the U.S. Marines could save us from the quagmire. God bless you, Kurt Vonnegut. Time waits for no man.

B. Thomas Cooper - Editor

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