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Oct 01, Deedles rated it it was amazing. I'm from way up north where the blueberries grow; where high school shuts down for the opening of deer season and kids learn to load buckshot before they hit puberty. If you do something in the morning, everyone will sure as shit have already heard about it by evening. It's safe to say that I live in a small town. And this, in a way, is sort of what this story is about. Everyone knows him, and what he did, and those hometown nicknames are I'm from way up north where the blueberries grow; where high school shuts down for the opening of deer season and kids learn to load buckshot before they hit puberty.
Everyone knows him, and what he did, and those hometown nicknames are hard to shake off. Especially when you deserve them. Small towns are weird. If you have a lick of talent, everyone thinks you are great, but you get out in the real world and realize you were just a big fish in a small backasswards pond.
You swear to God Almighty that you are going to get out of this stupid place and never come back, but you find yourself sucked back in with the rest of the folk that couldn't manage to do anything with their lives or break away from the safety of a close-knit community. And there you are, working the same job at the mill your daddy did. There is a lot more to this story than just small-town midwestern living. But this is what resonated the most with me.
What else can I say about this book other than I love it? Vonnegut is a master of irony and this story hits home in a lot of ways. It is simultaneously bizarre, funny, and heartbreaking -- like you would expect with a Kurt Vonnegut book. It's a story of a life of broken people, missed opportunities, and sheer luck. Oct 23, Chris rated it it was amazing Shelves: Vonnegut is back at full strength!
I'm reading his novels in chronological sequence and the two written after Breakfast of Champions were a disappointment at best. With Deadeye Dick , his power returns, with a more mature end-of-life perspective. Even though Vonnegut was only 59 while writing it, you get the feeling that his personal story has ended, and its epilogue has begun. This is not a guess: Between its openi Vonnegut is back at full strength!
Between its opening lines "To the as-yet-unborn, to all innocent wisps of undifferentiated nothingness: We are still in the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages—they haven't ended yet. It will be interesting how he follows of course, followed up on this one. Apr 30, M. Another great Vonnegut novel down! The more you read Vonnegut, the more you realize that each of his books is simply a different cynical riff on some aspect of his personal microcosm.
This one is more of a tangent to the others, great reading as a sort of appendix or precursor to Breakfast Of Champions. The story stands completely alone, but it would be a very odd place to start if you were not yet initiated to his world. I wouldn't start here, but if your burning through his books, make sure yo Another great Vonnegut novel down!
I wouldn't start here, but if your burning through his books, make sure you hit this one. Jan 12, fortuna. Watch out for life. Rudy Waltz fast became one of my favorite KV creations. His recipes and memory playlets added a layer of complexity to the character and style. As always, Vonnegut is the master of satire. Jul 14, Wayne rated it it was amazing. The bomb, big pharma, police brutality, the modern age, and so much more - always timely and of the moment.
Heavy themes, but wrapped in genuine goodness. Vonnegut's autobiographical prologues are the best, this has to be has one of my faves. Another review lost when Firefox crashed The witty, pithy, and yet still heartrendingly human and vulnerable sentiments that are Vonnegut's trademarks are here in spades. A good read indeed. But, but, something seems to be missing from this one, something I can't quite put my finger on. T Another review lost when Firefox crashed The novel has themes, actions, and some symbols--which the author explains to us in the preface.
Is this what put me off? Was there nothing to do as a reader except stand passively by and observe what had already been explained to me? Or is it perhaps the novel's primary message which somehow made it impossible for the novel to actually be what we've come to call a novel. The main event of the narrative is an act both so random as to be absurd and yet so horrific in its occurrence as to seem to demand explanation.
That is as much to say, then, that the novel is about the insufficiency of the traditional narrative to explain some of the most dire events--exactly the events that we seem to need to explain the most. This is a revelation I thought I had come to on my own, and much of my own recent writing has been about this very situation: I'm currently composing a novel in frames in which six storytellers spend a week telling each other tales through the night.
Therefore, in my novel, narrative itself--as it is in my master Boccaccio's Decameron --becomes a major theme. My point in composing such a text is that we have need of new narrative--even non-narrative--narrative forms in order to really understand--or understand a little better--the actual chaos that is the universe--which, in the end, may not be narrative at all.
I'll go out on a limb here and say that it's not, destroying the foundations of all human religion, science, and philosophy in a single sentence. Probably I hadn't really come to the conclusion that much of even the so-called human sciences are framed by classical narrative: Anthropology studies our need for and the forms that our humankind in general stories take. Connecting these thoughts makes me like Deadeye Dick better than I thought I did when I began writing this review.
If that's really what the novel is saying. I guess if I say that's what it's saying then that's what it's saying because the moral of a story is in the eye of the beholding reader, no? This is why I personally believe the greatest story ever told not to be the passion of the Christ but rather "The Emperor's New Clothes.
Stories about story telling are not only about story telling; they're about the human mind, about conformity, deceit, religion, politics. They are pure historiography and anthropology, baby. They tell us not what we need to know but maybe how we need to know. To a writer anyway. Jun 23, Russel rated it did not like it. Mar 01, Harrison Phinney rated it really liked it. There is a lot to unpack here, from this trove of symbols and motifs; but I will simply recommend this book as the rollicking yet sad tale of the trials of an American family, as microcosm of the nation itself.
One quote stands out to me: It is too easy, when alive, to make perfectly horrible mistakes. Mar 20, Alex Drozd rated it really liked it. It doesn't have the impact of some of Vonnegut's bigger-picture works, but boy does it deliver with good characters, a decent pace, and piercing social observations. I'm surprised Deadeye Dick isn't as loved as some of his other works.
Apr 30, John Box rated it really liked it Shelves: A second perfectly horrible mistake is the accidental detonation of a neutron bomb in Midland City which kills everyone in the area but leaves all the buildings and infrastructure intact. A third perfectly horrible mistake is committed by Rudy at the tender age of 12 and leads to him living a neutered life where he tries to make amends for his crime by waiting hand and foot on his parents for as long as they live while being as non-existent as possible. All in all, while the story is flat and somewhat rambling, it did have its fair share of interesting thoughts and witty lines.
How is that not in every Walgreens on the planet?! I give Deadeye Dick 3. And then the voice from the back of the theater could rumble: Nothing else really interests Me. All the rest is frippery. Jul 13, Oriana rated it really liked it Shelves: This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here. I picked this up because I wanted to read a Kurt Vonnegut book that I haven't read before, and neither the title or the back-cover synopsis sounded familiar to me.
But it only took a chapter to realize that I have indeed read this before, probably several times. And that's the thing about Kurt Vonnegut I've always found bewildering: His books are so good , right? But, with the exception of Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of Champions and Slaughterhouse Five , obvs , I never remember them for more than I picked this up because I wanted to read a Kurt Vonnegut book that I haven't read before, and neither the title or the back-cover synopsis sounded familiar to me.
But, with the exception of Cat's Cradle and Breakfast of Champions and Slaughterhouse Five , obvs , I never remember them for more than a few days after I've finished. I don't know why that is, because he is nothing if not insanely detailed. There are so many characters, and everyone has a backstory and frontstory and friends and desires and funny things to say, and his plots are so rambling and strange and back-and-forth and unique, and his dialogue is believable and well paced. And on and on and on. Anyway, if only for my own reference the next time I try to pick this up, thinking I've never read it before, here's a quick plot rundown spoilers to follow, if anyone cares.
Otto and Emma Waltz are incredibly wealthy and frivolous, he a fraud of an artist, she a debutante. They get married and live in a huge old carriage house. They have two sons, Rudy and Felix. Felix goes off to war, and then Rudy accidentally shoots a woman he is twelve. His father sort of takes the fall and does a little time in prison. The husband of the woman killed sues the Waltzes for everything they have, and since neither parent has ever washed a dish or folded a blanket or cooked so much as a piece of toast, Rudy becomes their personal servant. There's a lot more the book is told in flashback after both parents are dead and Rudy and Felix own a hotel in Haiti , but I'm tired and I said I would only do a synopsis anyway.
Mar 25, Bookhode rated it liked it. I am not really sure why I liked Deadeye Dick. When you talk about this book, there is not much you can say about the plot, or the characters, or even about a message it should deliver. In many ways, this is a book about nothing, but it somehow manages to remain interesting in almost Seinfeldesque way. The novel is a personal life story told by Rudy Waltz, who got the nickname Deadeye Dick as a kid when he accidentally shot a pregnant woman.
In the resulting lawsuit, Waltz's previously rich famil I am not really sure why I liked Deadeye Dick. In the resulting lawsuit, Waltz's previously rich family lost pretty much everything, and Rudy spent the rest of his reclusive life taking care of his spoiled parents, and struggling with the permanent sense of guilt. Mostly isolated from the world and avoiding any human contact, Rudy's only pleasures were cooking the book actually contains a bunch of detailed recipes which reminded me of Chuck Palahniuk's pointless do-it-yourself intermissions , and writing a theater play about places he never saw and people he never understood.
There are many signature Vonnegut traits in this story, including eccentric parents, connections with Nazi Germany, a random disaster accidental Neutron bomb explosion that wipes out the entire city , and there are also some places and characters from Breakfast of Champions making another appearance. Combined with the author's easily recognizable writing style, his unique tone and his dark humor, Deadeye Dick creates a very familiar and pleasant surrounding for long time fans. This was my 6th Vonnegut novel, and while it's not as poignant and it does not have a universally strong message like some of his best works, Deadeye Dick was still good enough effort to make me feel like I want to return to the author some more in the future.
Feb 09, Derek Davis rated it really liked it. Don't read this novel if your house has burned down or somebody shot your dog.
Written two years before Vonnegut's attempted suicide, it's the most depressing and depressive novel I've ever read. The narrator, Rudy Waltz, as a teen accidentally shot and killed a pregnant woman while minding his father's gun collection. His father, a wealthy but totally untalented would-be artist in Midland City, Indiana, after a brief friendship with Hitler bought and outfitted a massive carriage ho Warning: His father, a wealthy but totally untalented would-be artist in Midland City, Indiana, after a brief friendship with Hitler bought and outfitted a massive carriage house which he turned into a home.
Rudy's mother has never done anything and never will. His bother Felix, married five times, has spent much of his life subsisting on drugs and clothes.
Father and mother lose their fortune in a law suit and seldom bother to dress during the day. Midland City has produced no one of note and was mentioned on national news only for an historic blizzard. Its inhabitants vary from the odd to the vicious. It is later depopulated by a neutron bomb which leaves the buildings intact. Rudy, now in late middle age, has never had a girlfriend, never had sex, considers himself a neuter and finds life to be an odd, meaningless experiment.
Though some of these incidents might be classified as spoilers, revealing them makes no difference as far as the novel is concerned. Little of Vonnegut's vaunted humor is present until near the end, and then in a bitter, skewering mode. So why four stars? Because, as always, Vonnegut is express-train readable, his simplest sentences doing strange little jigs and backflips just when you think they've gone to sleep. Not his best, certainly, but worth the trip. Jun 01, Johanna Hilla rated it it was amazing.
I read almost the entire book when a fire broke out at a painting section of a car factory, and all the workers were sent out to spend their day outside. For one day the usually busy nest of working blue-overall bees turned into a sunny festival of ice-cream and cigarettes. It could have been the best day of the summer. The joy of sunshine when you are expected to work, but cannot because of a system failure. This is a big, bulky book for only little over words. The blue cover, which looks l I read almost the entire book when a fire broke out at a painting section of a car factory, and all the workers were sent out to spend their day outside.
The blue cover, which looks like a cheap 90's superhero promotion matched the blue overalls, and people smiled whilst driving by with their forklifts. I was being careful to not to be on the way, for this is the perfect story about accidents that ruin lives. Reading his works always makes me remember how little we can define what kind of life is good.
He ridicules the insistence of human beings on hierarchical structures which are essentially built upon nothing more but appearances. And then, at any given moment, everything gets taken away, and someone cuts the buttons off all of the clothes you bought in London. I'm going to give this five stars because of someone whose peephole closed due to a radioactive mantelpiece. Do bi do bi do. May 21, Nick Baam rated it it was amazing.
Deadeye Dick is a novel by Kurt Vonnegut originally published in Contents . 1 Plot summary; 2 Place in the Vonnegut universe; 3 References; 4 External. Deadeye Dick was an American alternative rock trio that was formed in New Orleans, Louisiana. Contents. 1 History of the band; 2 Caleb Guillotte.
Cannot believe Vonnegut ever wrote a better book than this. Brilliant from beginning to end.
Life is not over, but the story is. They find their lives short on story and overburdened with epilogue. For some reason, the less you pay for a watch, the surer you can be that it will never stop. This lady here out to get switches and coal every Mother's Day! My brother and I know so much about black people and so little about white people, we should be in a minstrel show. But there's not a single one. What a book, what an imagination. Vonnegut still has it. On finishing the novel, the kitchen of your mind is a cleaner and more well-lighted place than it was before. Kurt Vonnegut was a master of contemporary American literature.
In Deadeye Dick, the Vonnegut trademark with language—the simple, childlike rhetoric which has the effect of unmasking the absurdity of so much that we take for granted—remains in fine working order. Also by Kurt Vonnegut. Inspired by Your Browsing History. Looking for More Great Reads? Download our Spring Fiction Sampler Now. LitFlash The eBooks you want at the lowest prices. Read it Forward Read it first. Unbound Worlds Exploring the science fiction and fantasy universe.
May 11, Pages. In Deadeye Dick, the Vonnegut trademark with language—the simple, childlike rhetoric which has the effect of unmasking the absurdity of so much that we take for granted—remains in fine working order. While Deadeye Dick isn't his best, it's still pretty awesome. These elements compound each other and Billy finds himself traveling through time to different points in his life; during his time in World War II, during his time with his wife Valencia, on a planet inhabited by the Tralfamadorians who have him locked up as a human zoo exhibit , and a few others. This is the novel that had the misinformation about the Creole language only being in the present tense and the neutron bomb not wrecking anything but the living things.
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