Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut
★★★☆
I feel like a broken record when it comes to short stories, but every time I seem to have the same reaction. It’s incredibly rare to find one where every story in the collection is a gem and this is no exception to that rule. There are some great pieces including “The Lie” about a young boy’s application to the prep school. “Unready to Wear” is another fascinating one, telling the story of a world where some people have figured out how to leave their bodies behind and exist without them. They put on new bodies like a suit of clothes. But for every good one there is a weaker one and the collection of 25 stories is a mixed bag.
“Who Am I This Time?” is my favorite of the bunch. Harry is a quiet man who works at a local hardware store. Once a year he comes to life in a local theatre production. He throws himself into every new role with wild abandon, but the moment the curtain falls on the final night he return to his chronically shy personality. Helen is new to town and finds herself cast opposite Harry in “A Streetcar Named Desire.” She falls in love, but she’s fallen in love with the character Harry is playing, not Harry himself.
The main stories that I think will stay with me are not Vonnegut’s usual fare. For a man so well-known for his sarcasm the book contains some surprisingly sweet pieces. His cynical wit seeps in, but it's tempered with a warm nostalgia. Many of the stories were written while he was a young author trying to make ends meet. His talent is there but he was writing for a wider audience. A great example of this is one Vonnegut originally titles "Hell to Get Along With," when it was printed in the Ladies Home Journal (yes a Vonnegut article!) it was renamed, "Long Walk to Forever." Another great one is "Adam," which introduces readers to two Holocaust survivors marveling at the miracle of childbirth.
BOTTOM LINE: Some of these stories, particularly the ones I mentioned, are absolute 5 star pieces for me, but overall the book is hit or miss. I would highly recommend it to anyone who wants to try Vonnegut to see if they might like his style.
p.s. Last month I got to see a play based on three of the stories from this collection. It was called "Who am I This Time?" and it was excellent!
