Kurt Vonnegut

While he perhaps too often goes for the comic touch whenever it is available, Vonnegut is nevertheless trying to make the serious point that life and art have indeed become mired in money and materialism and resentments and abstractions to such an extent that humanity is in danger of having its very essence destroyed.

Vonnegut's humor is used to portray man's brutality to man in an off-handed way which highlights rather than eases that brutality:

The Turks simply took all the Armenians they could find . . . and shot and bashed them and son on until they all appeared to be dead. It was up to dogs and vultures and rodents and so on, and finally worms, to clean up the mess afterward (4).

The story is told by Rabo Karabejian, the American-born son

of Armenian immigrants, a man twice-married, living in his dead second wife's house in Long Island. He can hardly be called a happy man when we

. . .
Bluebeard as applied to Rabo's secrets in the barn, the mysteries of Circe and her own life and writing career, his artist friends living and dead, materialism and money and ignorance and prejudice as driving factors in society, World War II, and on and on. Not only does Vonnegut try to cram all this into one book, he does it in an exasperating flashback/collage (Abstract Expressionist?) style which stops the story in its tracks every time it seems in danger of getting somewhere. Too often he relies on phrases such as "Back to the past" and "Back to the present" to try to give the reader some sense of where he or she might be in the narrative. One feels as if one were trapped in a sterile estate on a sterile island, being led from dusty room to dusty room by an owner who is far less interesting a storyteller than he believes himself to be. Vonnegut is trying to rescue Rabo from Long Island just as he is trying to rescue the reader from the society the author believes to be toxic and abstract and obsessed with violence. The problem is that Vonnegut's messages are so obvious and proper, even if the reader agrees with them. yes, New York City is a city far more alive and chaotic and creative and human than Long island and the H
. . .

Some common words found in the essay are:
Abstract Expressionist, Poor Rabo, Kurt Vonnegut, Rabo Emperor, Rabo Island, Karabejian American-born, War Europe, Circe Berman, Hamptons Yes, War II, abstract expressionist, world war, abstract expressionism, abstract expressionist paintings, expressionist paintings, little girls, rabo island, living dead, sterile island, world war ii, course book, life art,
Approximate Word count = 1649
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page)

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