Biography EssayAs of 1987 Kurt Vonnegut's work includes twelve novels, a play and a television play, two collections of short stories, two collections of essays, and a miscellany of uncollected shorte...
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Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (born 1922) is acknowledged as a major voice in American literature and applauded for his pungent satirical depictions of modern society. Emphasizing the comic absurdity of the huma...
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Described as "a word cartoonist, a wise guy, a true subversive," by Valerie Sayers in the New York Times, Kurt Vonnegut is lauded as one of America's most respected novelists, "recognized as a thought...
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"I got to be a joke-maker as the youngest member of my family. My sister was five years older than I was, my brother was nine years older, and at the dinner table I was the lowest ranking thing there....
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As of 1977, Vonnegut's work includes eight novels, a play and a television play, two collections of short stories, a collection of essays, and a number of uncollected shorter pieces of fiction and non...
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Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., remains something of a paradox among science-fiction writers. Although his place of importance in serious American fiction is now secure, his relationship to the genre that nurture...
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[This entry was updated by Peter J. Reed (University of Minnesota) from his entry in DLB 152: American Novelists Since World War II, Fourth Series.]Though Kurt Vonnegut had been a widely read short-st...
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In the review below, Garrett claims that in Hocus Pocus, Vonnegut returns to the high quality of his earlier works.
Once upon a time, I, too, was a Vonnegut groupie. In that world, which every day ...
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In the following review, Bell argues that the narrative of Hocus Pocus becomes secondary to themes that Vonnegut wishes to discuss.
Here comes another of Vonnegut's exemplary tales about one...
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In the following review, Montrose characterizes Hocus Pocus as a novelized essay and praises Vonnegut's masterful style.
Hocus Pocus presents a dystopian America where the future (2001) is l...
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In the following review, Lubold argues that the key to Hocus Pocus is the way in which Vonnegut takes the concerns of today and portrays them in the extreme in his futuristic setting.
Vonnegut�...
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In the excerpt below, Phillips criticizes Vonnegut's style in Hocus Pocus.
In closing [Hocus Pocus], I was reminded of John Jay Chapman's remark: "When I put down a book by Ste...
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In the following review, Cantor concludes that Hocus Pocus is a vehicle for Vonnegut to communicate his despair over humanity.
Woody Allen once observed that 80 percent of life is showing up. The o...
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Irving is an acclaimed American novelist and short story writer. In the review below, he praises Hocus Pocus as one of Vonnegut's best novels and discusses the merits of Vonnegut's writi...
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In the following review, Skow praises Vonnegut's message in Hocus Pocus, but criticizes his writing.
The knock against Kurt Vonnegut, back a couple of decades ago when he was a cult author, ...
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In the review below, Lehmann-Haupt characterizes Hocus Pocus as a "contest between comedy and despair" in which the latter gains the upper hand.
It should come as no surprise to Kurt ...
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McInerney is an American novelist. In the following review, he discusses the balance between pessimism and humor in Vonnegut's novels, focusing on Hocus Pocus.
For purposes of comparison wit...
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In the review below, Leonard praises Hocus Pocus and discusses Vonnegut's fatalistic message.
Hocus Pocus seems to me to be Vonnegut's best novel in years—funny and prophetic, ...
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In the following review, Buchan states that Hocus Pocus has many elements in common with Vonnegut's earlier novels.
This is Kurt Vonnegut's 17th novel to appear in England, so the Bri...
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In the review below, Streitfeld argues that society is the main character in Hocus Pocus and that Vonnegut's sense of dismay with America is the novel's overriding tone.
Sixty-seven y...
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The latest resurrection of Gounod's Faust at the Metropolitan Opera-staged with compulsive vividness-employs a cast that for uniform brilliance may surpass that of any Faust in the company's 122-ye...
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Two days before the opening of Egypt's first ever New Age festival, organizer Suzanne Mitchell-Egan was summoned by state security, the nation's dreaded plainclothes police force, to explain what s...
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Legend has it that University Hall is haunted. That's the story anyway. Maybe you believe it, perhaps you don't _ but it's a safe bet you'll encounter the lore on the Providence Ghost Tour, a ...
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Everyman, the late-15th-century morality play, teaches a grim lesson. Summoned by Death to “take a long journey,” Everyman finds that his friends and family quickly desert him, that ric...
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Everyman, the late-15th-century morality play, teaches a grim lesson. Summoned by Death to “take a long journey,” Everyman finds that his friends and family quickly desert him, that ric...
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I must acknowledge from the outset that the mostly derisive reviews of John Maybury's The Jacket placed it very low on my reviewing priority list-until my astute Freudian-auteurist friend, Stephen ...
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J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III, from a screenplay by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Mr. Abrams, based on the television series created by Bruce Geller, has become an impossible mission...
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J.J. Abrams’ Mission: Impossible III, from a screenplay by Alex Kurtzman, Roberto Orci and Mr. Abrams, based on the television series created by Bruce Geller, has become an impossible mission...
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Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Critical Review by George Garrett
Tradition Reimagined Revives an Old Favorite
