- Hardcover: 224 pages
- Publisher: Jonathan Cape Ltd (Feb 17 1983)
- Language: English
- ISBN-10: 0224029452
- ISBN-13: 978-0224029452
- Shipping Weight: 467 g
- Average Customer Review: 3.9 out of 5 stars See all reviews (38 customer reviews)
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Product Details |
Product Description
Review
“A moving fable . . . Vonnegut, sweet cynic and ugly duckling, continues to write gentle swan songs for our uncivil society.”—Playboy
“The master at his quirky, provocative best.”—Cosmopolitan
“Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer . . . a zany but moral mad scientist.”—Time --This text refers to the Paperback edition.
Book Description
Rudolf Waltz's principal objection to life was that it was too easy to make horrible mistakes. He was himself to become a double-murderer at the age of twelve - on Mother's Day. This would at least make subsequent mistakes seem fairly trivial. Rudolf's father, Otto Waltz, had in 1910 bought a painting in Vienna from a destitute Adolf Hitler, thereby possibly saving him from starvation for a future generation. He made the further mistake of setting himself up as an artist when he returned from Europe to Midland City, Ohio, where everyone knew Otto couldn't draw for sour apples. He had funds to indulge this grand illusion (in the splendor of a vast converted 'medieval granary' studio, reminiscent of Mount Fujiyama) because his father had made a fortune producing an opium-and-cocaine-laced quack medicine called Saint Elmo's Remedy, popularly known to be 'absolutely harmless unless discontinued'. The Waltz inheritance even stretched to a troupe of black servants, which was just as well since Rudy's mother was as disinclined to look after a home as his 'artist' father was to paint.
Inside This Book
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First Sentence
TO THE AS-YET-UNBORN, to all innocent wisps of undifferentiated nothingness: Watch out for life. Read the first page
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
TO THE AS-YET-UNBORN, to all innocent wisps of undifferentiated nothingness: Watch out for life. Read the first page
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Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Copyright | Excerpt
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Most helpful customer reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars
One of my favourite books ever!,
By Mr Stuart A Woolgar (In bed) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Deadeye Dick: A Novel (Paperback)
The first Vonnegut book I ever read, and the strangest I feel. The kid shoots some guy from a tower and his whole life falls apart due to that one event. He writes an atrociously parochial play that gets laughed at in the Big Apple of America. When writing about the failures of everyday life humanity, Vonnegut is at his best. This has all of the most tragically funny events and characters woven into a nauseous tale. My favourite part is where the kid who writes the play, writes his own script of the situation of his brother arguing with his brother's girlfriend. Some call it black humour, I think that doesn't do it's creativity justice. A must read!
5.0 out of 5 stars
Advice,
By A Customer
This review is from: Deadeye Dick: A Novel (Paperback)
Read this after reading Breakfast of Champions, you'll enjoy it that much more.
2.0 out of 5 stars
Muted story,
By julian (Malta) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Deadeye Dick: A Novel (Paperback)
In Deadeye Dick, the underlying messages shine through Vonnegut's words, the morals of innocence, the corruption of being etc. etc.But Vonnegut forgot one thing in this book. The story. What is in his other books a perfect mixture of story and the underlying morals, here it is a decidedly lop-sided affair. The story is very unengaging and I found it quite tedious, to be frank. And unfortunately, it went downhill after an ok-ish start. Thankfully, those recipes he throws in very frequently at the first part of the novel are toned down because what was a good idea would have turned into an annoying one if continued too frequently. This is the most disappointing Vonnegut book I've read so far.
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