Vous voulez voir cette page en français ? Cliquez ici.

17 used & new from CDN$ 3.63
See All Buying Options
Have one to sell? Sell yours here
 
 
SLAPSTICK
 
See larger image 
Share your own customer images
Publisher: learn how customers can search inside this book.

SLAPSTICK (Paperback)

by Kurt Vonnegut (Author)
4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (57 customer reviews)

Available from these sellers.


4 new from CDN$ 37.95 10 used from CDN$ 3.63 3 collectible from CDN$ 10.00

Customers Who Bought This Item Also Bought

DEADEYE DICK

DEADEYE DICK

by Kurt Vonnegut
3.9 out of 5 stars (38)  CDN$ 8.99
Mother Night: A Novel

Mother Night: A Novel

by Kurt Vonnegut
4.8 out of 5 stars (82)  CDN$ 13.83
Galapagos: A Novel

Galapagos: A Novel

by Kurt Vonnegut
3.9 out of 5 stars (76)  CDN$ 13.83
Player Piano

Player Piano

by Kurt Vonnegut
4.0 out of 5 stars (61)  CDN$ 13.83
Jailbird: A Novel

Jailbird: A Novel

by Kurt Vonnegut
4.2 out of 5 stars (25)  CDN$ 13.83
› Explore similar items

Product Details

Product Description

From Amazon.com

Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, centenarian, the last President of the United States, King of Manhattan, and one-half (along with his sister, Eliza) of the most powerful intelligence since Einstein, is penning his autobiography. He occupies the first floor of a ruined Empire State Building and lives like a royal scavenger with his illiterate granddaughter and her beau. Buffeted by fluctuating gravity, the U.S. has been scourged by not one, but two lethal diseases: the Green Death and the Albanian Flu. Consequently, the country has fallen into civil war. (Super-intelligent, miniaturized Chinese watch the West self-destruct from the sidelines.) Swain stayed at the White House until there were no citizens left to govern, then moved to deserted New York City, where he writes a thoughtful missive before death.

In Slapstick, Vonnegut muses on war, man's hubris, and the awful, crippling loneliness humans are freighted with--but, miraculously, the book still manages to delight and amuse. Absurd, knowing, never depressing, Slapstick kindles hope--for the possibility of wisdom, perhaps; for human resiliency, surely.

It's best to end with a quote from the prologue wherein the author discourses on The Meaning of It All, or at least This Book: "Love is where you find it. I think it is foolish to go off looking for it, and I think it can often be poisonous.
I wish that people who are conventionally supposed to love each other would say to each other, when they fight, 'Please--a little less love, and a little more common decency.'"
Amen.



Review

"Vonnegut's ongoing  puppet show. . .the fabulous is reborn."--John  Updike, The New Yorker.

"Imaginative and hilarious... a brilliant vision of  wrecked, wacked-out future!"  --Hartford Courant
See all Product Description

Tag this product

 (What's this?)
Think of a tag as a keyword or label you consider is strongly related to this product.
Tags will help all customers organize and find favorite items.
Your tags: Add your first tag
 
See most popular tags

What do customers ultimately buy after viewing this item?

SLAPSTICK
43% buy the item featured on this page:
SLAPSTICK 4.3 out of 5 stars (57)
Mother Night: A Novel
18% buy
Mother Night: A Novel 4.8 out of 5 stars (82)
CDN$ 13.83
The Sirens of Titan: A Novel
16% buy
The Sirens of Titan: A Novel 4.6 out of 5 stars (114)
CDN$ 13.83
Breakfast of Champions or Goodbye Blue Monday!: A Novel
14% buy
Breakfast of Champions or Goodbye Blue Monday!: A Novel 4.6 out of 5 stars (194)
CDN$ 13.83
Explore similar items
 

Customer Reviews

57 Reviews
5 star:
 (34)
4 star:
 (12)
3 star:
 (5)
2 star:
 (4)
1 star:
 (2)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.3 out of 5 stars (57 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
Share your thoughts with other customers:
Most helpful customer reviews

 
4.0 out of 5 stars Typical Vonnegut--very good, Mar 9 2006
By Shelia A. (Calgary) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Slapstick or Lonesome No More!: A Novel (Paperback)
Being a Vonnegut fan from decades ago (giving away my age here), I can honestly say that SLAPSTICK is ever bit as good as his other works. This is truly Vonnegut at his best. A great read that will take merely 2 hours of your time. Vonnegut brings to the table greatly constructed, humourous characters to deliver his message with powerful yet simple force. Terrific plot lines and unforgettable satire will keep you zipping through the pages of this wondrous read. The story is farfetch'd yet strangely familiar, with the eerie sort of truth and obviousness that Vonnegut readers love and expect. Nothing but genius here, though incredibly off the wall it is brilliant!... the same way McCrae's "Katzenjammer" is, or perhaps the works of Palahniuk. Highly recommended.
Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
2.0 out of 5 stars Uncharacteristically flat Vonnegut, May 19 2004
By William J. Spiropoulos "moogyboy" (Columbus, OH) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Slapstick or Lonesome No More!: A Novel (Paperback)
Just two stars. It pains me. KV is one of my favorite authors, and so I'm used to his often quirky and silly style which he used to spectacular effect in books like Slaughterhouse-Five and especially Breakfast of Champions (my personal fave). But here it seems as if Vonnegut is simply working his shtick, heartlessly going through the motions as if he were getting tired of the whole routine. It wasn't for lack of ideas--as usual, he offers a huge pile of observations about our collective condition in the monkey house and wacky but insightful solutions to the problems therein--but they seem to be all but random bits of dust floating in a shapeless mess of a story that tries to coagulate into something meaningful and ultimately doesn't really go anywhere. Perhaps another draft would have helped pull everything together. Or maybe at this point KV really was as washed out as he keeps insisting. And yes, all the "hi-ho"s in this book are not only pointless but royally irritating, like the hiccups they are likened to--definitely not on the same level of literary greatness as KV's immortal "and so on". He was reaching. Kilgore Trout doesn't even appear.

Read Slapstick only after having seen what KV is REALLY capable of when all his cylinders are firing and the nitrous is on full blast: Breakfast of Champions, Slaughterhouse-Five, Welcome To The Monkey House, Cat's Cradle, Mother Night. Etc. And so on.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)



 
4.0 out of 5 stars weird, Sep 28 2003
By Bob NothingElse (al-ba-ker-kee.) - See all my reviews
This review is from: Slapstick or Lonesome No More!: A Novel (Paperback)
That pretty much sums it up. Welcome to entertainment, and lost society, lost humanity, lost everything. Told from the point of view of an old man who just doesn't care anymore, this novel hardly has the humor that the title suggests, and it's just more tragic than anything. Welcome to the twisted future, where the messed up inner workings of our minds come forth is a world devoid of resources, ambition, order, or any real accomplishments -- welcome to Western Civilization.

Where's the humor? Don't ask me. But, like all Vonnegut, this is indeed a memorable book.

Was this review helpful to you? Yes No (Report this)


Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
 
 		 Most recent customer reviews

5.0 out of 5 stars Cat's Cradle Redux.
Years after his classic 'Cat's Cradle', an apocalyptic novel with such a varied subject matter that it gives Pynchon a run for his money, Vonnegut returns to treat the 'end of the... Read more
Published on Aug 20 2003 by wadelipham_

2.0 out of 5 stars As silly as its name entails
As far as I can tell, this was Vonnegut's attempt at an distopian novel of the vein of Brave New World or 1984, yet more satirical. But Vonnegut struck out with this book. Read more
Published on Jun 29 2003 by Matthew Bratkowski

4.0 out of 5 stars 100 year old 4-nippled man in a purple toga. A great read.
One-hundred year old, two meter tall Dr. Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, former President of the United States who won the election with the campaign slogan "Lonesome No More" sits in... Read more
Published on May 28 2003 by rachel lubeck

3.0 out of 5 stars Good for a Laugh, But What's the Point?
Kurt Vonnegut's Slapstick or Lonesome No More! is an apocalyptic, though somehow light-hearted vision of the future of our planet and the demise of the United States. Read more
Published on May 19 2003 by Maxwell Price-Bak Middle Schoo...

4.0 out of 5 stars "Lonesome no more"? Yes
Slapstick was a great novel because Kurt Vonnegut Showed all characteristics of Wilbur and Eliza and with all their adventures they went through, Kurt Vonnegut said it like if he... Read more
Published on Jan 23 2003 by jesus h

4.0 out of 5 stars "Lonesome no more"? Yes
Slapstick was a great novel because Kurt Vonnegut Showed all characteristics of Wilbur and Eliza and with all their adventures they went through, Kurt Vonnegut said it like if he... Read more
Published on Jan 23 2003 by jesus h

4.0 out of 5 stars U know hi ...
I thought this book was terrific that is why I give it 4 stars. There are many reasons why it deserves the 4 stars but one in particular is that Kurt Vonnegut explains how the... Read more
Published on Jan 22 2003 by jesus h

3.0 out of 5 stars A struggle
This was not the easiest book to get into at all. I like the concept of having a 12-fingered/toed, anomalously tall and genetically odd person and his twin sister, with him... Read more
Published on Oct 5 2002 by K. Bentley

5.0 out of 5 stars One of Vonnegut's best
Slapstick is one of the four best Vonnegut books (** see below), and a "must have". Intriguingly, Vonnegut himself rated this book as inferior, but I (and many, many... Read more
Published on Jun 22 2002 by manning_in_sydney

5.0 out of 5 stars One of his five best books
Funny, memorable, sad, insightful - vintage Vonnegut. Read it!
Published on May 28 2002

Only search this product's reviews


Listmania!

Create a Listmania! list

Look for similar items by category

Look for similar items by subject








i.e., each book must be in subject 1 AND subject 2 AND ...

Feedback

Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?

Your Recent History

 (What's this?)

After viewing product detail pages or search results, look here to find an easy way to navigate back to pages you are interested in.