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Welcome to the Monkey House / Palm Sunday
A diabolical government asserts control by eliminating orgasms from sex in the title story of Welcome to the Monkey House - setting the tone for a collection shot through with Vonnegut's acrid wit, and his bewilderment at the corruption of humanity.
From riffs on country music, George Bush, and his mother's midnight mania, to a bittersweet tribute to a dead friend, Palm Sunday demonstrates why Kurt Vonnegut is equally well known as an essayist and commentator as he is a novelist.
This caustic, funny and poignant collection resonates with Vonnegut's singular voice.
From riffs on country music, George Bush, and his mother's midnight mania, to a bittersweet tribute to a dead friend, Palm Sunday demonstrates why Kurt Vonnegut is equally well known as an essayist and commentator as he is a novelist.
This caustic, funny and poignant collection resonates with Vonnegut's singular voice.
672 pages, Kindle Edition
First published January 1, 1981
36 people are currently reading
608 people want to read
About the author
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
710 books36.9k followersKurt Vonnegut, Junior was an American novelist, satirist, and most recently, graphic artist. He was recognized as New York State Author for 2001-2003.
He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked as a journalist before joining the U.S. Army and serving in World War II.
After the war, he attended University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology and also worked as a police reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. He left Chicago to work in Schenectady, New York in public relations for General Electric. He attributed his unadorned writing style to his reporting work.
His experiences as an advance scout in the Battle of the Bulge, and in particular his witnessing of the bombing of Dresden, Germany whilst a prisoner of war, would inform much of his work. This event would also form the core of his most famous work, Slaughterhouse-Five, the book which would make him a millionaire. This acerbic 200-page book is what most people mean when they describe a work as "Vonnegutian" in scope.
Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed humanist and socialist (influenced by the style of Indiana's own Eugene V. Debs) and a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The novelist is known for works blending satire, black comedy and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973)
He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked as a journalist before joining the U.S. Army and serving in World War II.
After the war, he attended University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology and also worked as a police reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. He left Chicago to work in Schenectady, New York in public relations for General Electric. He attributed his unadorned writing style to his reporting work.
His experiences as an advance scout in the Battle of the Bulge, and in particular his witnessing of the bombing of Dresden, Germany whilst a prisoner of war, would inform much of his work. This event would also form the core of his most famous work, Slaughterhouse-Five, the book which would make him a millionaire. This acerbic 200-page book is what most people mean when they describe a work as "Vonnegutian" in scope.
Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed humanist and socialist (influenced by the style of Indiana's own Eugene V. Debs) and a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union.
The novelist is known for works blending satire, black comedy and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973)
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
January 8, 2013
These short stories do a wonderful thing. They suck you in imperceptibly in such a way that even if you were not immediately gripped, by the end you will have fallen in love with the central idea. The simple is so often profound in Vonnegut's hands.
July 17, 2014
I have easily earn out several paperback copies of this book. Each short story is a gem. Each story has a way of staying with you. One of my favorite books.
November 15, 2023
read it for school and a very much wtf plot twist moment
December 22, 2013
I have loved Vonnegut's novels: Slaughterhouse V, Sirens of Titan, And Cats cradle especially, but reading his short works show a completely different side of Kurt Vonnegut Jr. While some of them are less content driven the his novels, as you would expect from short stories, I was amazed at how versatile is- from his more traditional Harrison Bergeron to the poetic and beautiful love story A Long Walk to Forever to the short satiric critique of Dictionaries, New Dictionary. Of course I am leaving out plenty which are equally versatile and notable. This is a great read, really helped to understand the depth and amazing capacity of Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
March 2, 2020
What should I say? Collections are tricky. Some stories and thought pieces will make you smile, others make you want to skip ahead. And this book is a combination of two previous collection books. One about Vonnegut's short stories and another about his thought pieces. There were places where I was in love, like with the futuristic government with equalizing all the citizens alike with handicaps. The skinny had to wear weights, the intelligent had their heads filled with random noises to interrupt their thought processes, the beautiful wore bags over their heads, the graceful dancers had restrictions as did the excellent musicians. It was one of the good ones as was the play about plays and actors who are empty without the characters. Or Kurt Vonnegut Jr. interviewing himself about Dresden. There are so many thoughts, ideas, and issues to speculate in this book that reading it could take a lifetime.
But of course, there were those pieces that didn't speak to me. Those that I read through and found no resonance in me. Maybe I wasn't the right audience for the beautiful girl who is not ever seen as a human being, only as a thing, or the soldier going AWOL for his childhood sweetheart or the long and gruesome Vonnegut family history. It is okay. I don't expect Vonnegut to play a tune for me or dance like those electric monkeys with symbals every time amusing me with his stories about his thesis paper. That is not how it goes.
My take on this dual edition is that I didn't care for it. I was surprised that I need a break between Vonneguts. But this is not the book's fault, it's me. Honest to Space Aliens.
Thank you for reading! And if you are like me and let Vonnegut sneak inside you, so you hear his voice, take a break.
But of course, there were those pieces that didn't speak to me. Those that I read through and found no resonance in me. Maybe I wasn't the right audience for the beautiful girl who is not ever seen as a human being, only as a thing, or the soldier going AWOL for his childhood sweetheart or the long and gruesome Vonnegut family history. It is okay. I don't expect Vonnegut to play a tune for me or dance like those electric monkeys with symbals every time amusing me with his stories about his thesis paper. That is not how it goes.
My take on this dual edition is that I didn't care for it. I was surprised that I need a break between Vonneguts. But this is not the book's fault, it's me. Honest to Space Aliens.
Thank you for reading! And if you are like me and let Vonnegut sneak inside you, so you hear his voice, take a break.
December 25, 2015
Oh wow! I finished it! Almost three months later...
I could say how ashamed I am about taking so long to read a less-than-650-pages book, but there was a mix of factors that prevented me from reading it faster. So, no, I'm not ashamed.
Relived, yes. With mixed feelings, too.
I borrowed this 2 in 1 book from a colleague from work, a Vonnegut fan, who cannot seem to lend me the only Vonnegut book I'm curious about: 'Slaughterhouse Five'.
But anyway, what can I say after almost three months after I started this book?
For one, that I didn't really like 'Welcome to the Monkeyhouse'. The collection of short stories didn't appeal to me that much. For some reason, I never liked their ends. There were some really cool and crazy ideas, but I couldn't, for the life of me, enjoy the way they ended.
'Palm Sunday', on the other hand, was really enjoyable. I have never been one to read biographies, but lately I have found that some autobiographies (and maybe that's the thing) are quite interesting. Again, this is a collection of several speeches Vonnegut gave throughout his life in different places and events. But it was really refreshing to read him talking about his family, his childhood, what he saw in WWII, what he thought about writing. It is quite fascinating.
I don't know if I will ever be able to enjoy Vonnegut's fiction (if I recall correctly, 'Galapagos' was just alright). But he was definitely very witty and had rather interesting things to say.
'Palm Sunday' saved the day, so to speak, even though there were some texts more boring than others. Still, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who can appreciate irony, and is not easily offended.
I could say how ashamed I am about taking so long to read a less-than-650-pages book, but there was a mix of factors that prevented me from reading it faster. So, no, I'm not ashamed.
Relived, yes. With mixed feelings, too.
I borrowed this 2 in 1 book from a colleague from work, a Vonnegut fan, who cannot seem to lend me the only Vonnegut book I'm curious about: 'Slaughterhouse Five'.
But anyway, what can I say after almost three months after I started this book?
For one, that I didn't really like 'Welcome to the Monkeyhouse'. The collection of short stories didn't appeal to me that much. For some reason, I never liked their ends. There were some really cool and crazy ideas, but I couldn't, for the life of me, enjoy the way they ended.
'Palm Sunday', on the other hand, was really enjoyable. I have never been one to read biographies, but lately I have found that some autobiographies (and maybe that's the thing) are quite interesting. Again, this is a collection of several speeches Vonnegut gave throughout his life in different places and events. But it was really refreshing to read him talking about his family, his childhood, what he saw in WWII, what he thought about writing. It is quite fascinating.
I don't know if I will ever be able to enjoy Vonnegut's fiction (if I recall correctly, 'Galapagos' was just alright). But he was definitely very witty and had rather interesting things to say.
'Palm Sunday' saved the day, so to speak, even though there were some texts more boring than others. Still, I would definitely recommend this book to anyone who can appreciate irony, and is not easily offended.
October 7, 2019
I would have given Welcome to the Monkeyhouse more stars and Palm Sunday less, so I have sort of averaged it out.
I have read Welcome to the Monkeyhouse more than once before and many of the stories in it have stayed with me over the years. I am a fan of Kurt Vonnegut's writing and I like the short story format (have tried writing a few myself). Vonnegut is a master of short story telling, so I was guaranteed to enjoy this one once again.
Palm Sunday was a motley collection of speeches, letters, book reviews, unpublished stuff and goodness knows what and, frankly, it was boring, and I doubt I even finished it. Just because I am interested in a writer, it does not follow that I am interested in the minutiae of his or her life. I don't care what Vonnegut said at the funeral of someone I didn't know or what he had for breakfast.
It's actually too long ago that I read this book, so this review may not be up to the standard it should be, but it is likely that it was trying to read Palm Sunday which put me off reviewing books for a while.
I have read Welcome to the Monkeyhouse more than once before and many of the stories in it have stayed with me over the years. I am a fan of Kurt Vonnegut's writing and I like the short story format (have tried writing a few myself). Vonnegut is a master of short story telling, so I was guaranteed to enjoy this one once again.
Palm Sunday was a motley collection of speeches, letters, book reviews, unpublished stuff and goodness knows what and, frankly, it was boring, and I doubt I even finished it. Just because I am interested in a writer, it does not follow that I am interested in the minutiae of his or her life. I don't care what Vonnegut said at the funeral of someone I didn't know or what he had for breakfast.
It's actually too long ago that I read this book, so this review may not be up to the standard it should be, but it is likely that it was trying to read Palm Sunday which put me off reviewing books for a while.
June 19, 2023
My first foray into Vonnegut's collection. What a great book to start with, I'm hooked and just ordered another book of his. Monkeyhouse as a collection of short stories is lucid, imaginative, and vivid in its content.
Not all the stories were published in the same year, but they're mostly dated from before 1964. I find that noteworthy because he has a few sci-fi leaning stories that are astonishingly predictive of our relationship with technology today. *SPOILER* One story brings up AI without ever calling it that specifically, but the concept is all there, with a self-conscious machine coming alive and understanding human relationships, just to decide for itself that it preferred committing suicide than to go through the pain of never feeling human love. It's uncannily prescient for its time. The characters are wild, the dialogue is honest, the descriptions are funny.
Not all the stories were published in the same year, but they're mostly dated from before 1964. I find that noteworthy because he has a few sci-fi leaning stories that are astonishingly predictive of our relationship with technology today. *SPOILER* One story brings up AI without ever calling it that specifically, but the concept is all there, with a self-conscious machine coming alive and understanding human relationships, just to decide for itself that it preferred committing suicide than to go through the pain of never feeling human love. It's uncannily prescient for its time. The characters are wild, the dialogue is honest, the descriptions are funny.
January 1, 2018
I don't normally love short story compilations, but this one was certainly an exception. I really enjoyed the mix between science fiction stories and the hyper-realistic plots pieced together in this book. Vonnegut once again shows his talent, versatility, and distinct voice in this work - highly recommended!
January 30, 2021
5 for Welcome to the Monkey House (the short stories)
2 for Palm Sunday (the autobiographical essays / speeches / etc. I skimmed a lot of this.
2 for Palm Sunday (the autobiographical essays / speeches / etc. I skimmed a lot of this.
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February 9, 2022Thanks to pills I did not sin
October 16, 2023
Like he's winking at the reader the whole time. Absolutely brilliant.
March 26, 2025
vonneguts a genius!
September 1, 2014
If I remember rightly this was stocked in the Gower St Waterstones under "Essays". In fact the first item (Monkeyhouse) is almost entirely made up of stories (the first bit is a bit of Sunday mag journalism, Vonnegut-styled), while the other, Palm Sunday, seems to be a collection of speeches made to churches, universities, clubs etc, stitched together fairly loosely.
So first off, it wasn't what I was expecting.
I dutifully read the first few items in WTTMH. These were well enough made and charming enough if you like that sort of thing. I don't, though I did my best.
Then I skipped forward to PS. This was a bit more promising, as KV discussed real subjects; but in the end I had to semi-skim this too.
His stories are wacky and "imaginative" in setting; fairly traditional in narrative construction and indeed content; and above all folksy and moralising under their thin decoration of novelty.
I'm sure he was a reasonably nice guy. Of course one doesn't (well I don't) read a writer for their real-life charmingness or decency, but for their skill in entertaining or provoking thought (their may be other relevant skills but I can't think of any offhand).
I reckon I'd see eye to eye with Kurt on many things. But he rarely provokes (or, apparently, engages in) thought and he entertains only very slightly. He has a low-key but insistent and grating sentimentalism. Also, he mostly seems unnecessarily pleased with himself. He has a pseudo-humble persona but one which always insinuates (fairly unmissably) something like "ok, Mister bigshot/ bad guy / whoever, you think you're pretty smart, but really little ol' Kurt with his simple ways is maybe better'n you after all. Hmm?"
Example: he prints in PS an introduction he'd written to an edition of Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (yep, Swift's one, not those other ones) - prefacing its chapter by announcing that, despite his eminence (pseudo-self-deprecation), the publisher had rejected it on the grounds that, in KV's words, he "had sentimentalized Swift, having failed, apparently, to have read any detailed accounts of his life and character." The rejected text follows immediately, and entirely bears out the publisher's objection.
Not my cup of tea.
So first off, it wasn't what I was expecting.
I dutifully read the first few items in WTTMH. These were well enough made and charming enough if you like that sort of thing. I don't, though I did my best.
Then I skipped forward to PS. This was a bit more promising, as KV discussed real subjects; but in the end I had to semi-skim this too.
His stories are wacky and "imaginative" in setting; fairly traditional in narrative construction and indeed content; and above all folksy and moralising under their thin decoration of novelty.
I'm sure he was a reasonably nice guy. Of course one doesn't (well I don't) read a writer for their real-life charmingness or decency, but for their skill in entertaining or provoking thought (their may be other relevant skills but I can't think of any offhand).
I reckon I'd see eye to eye with Kurt on many things. But he rarely provokes (or, apparently, engages in) thought and he entertains only very slightly. He has a low-key but insistent and grating sentimentalism. Also, he mostly seems unnecessarily pleased with himself. He has a pseudo-humble persona but one which always insinuates (fairly unmissably) something like "ok, Mister bigshot/ bad guy / whoever, you think you're pretty smart, but really little ol' Kurt with his simple ways is maybe better'n you after all. Hmm?"
Example: he prints in PS an introduction he'd written to an edition of Swift's "Gulliver's Travels" (yep, Swift's one, not those other ones) - prefacing its chapter by announcing that, despite his eminence (pseudo-self-deprecation), the publisher had rejected it on the grounds that, in KV's words, he "had sentimentalized Swift, having failed, apparently, to have read any detailed accounts of his life and character." The rejected text follows immediately, and entirely bears out the publisher's objection.
Not my cup of tea.
August 2, 2016
Part autobiography, part anecdote and some of his better short stories, this is quite a good introduction to Vonnegut.
March 16, 2012
Some great stories. Vonnegut's kooky tales are thoroughly engaging.
June 26, 2014
Always good things but not the best collection
December 28, 2015
This is the best short story collection I've read, right up there with John Collier's 'Fancies and Goodnights' though in an altogether different vein.
Read
May 1, 2009Fiction,Short stories
Read
January 27, 2014good
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews