Most critics regard Vonnegut's early work, specifically Mother Night (1961), Cat's Cradle (1963; see separate entry), and Slaughterhouse-Five (1969; see separate entry) as his best, and subsequent works are always compared to those benchmark novels. As early as The Sirens of Titan (1959), Vonnegut established an antinovel form and antinovel techniques which he has used ever since: a main character or first person narrator who ranges back and forth in time, nightmarish and bloody events which overwhelm the characters, antinovelistic interrupters that break up the action and narration, and a whimsical or pseudoscientific view of the purpose of.....
