Cat's Cradle

Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
1963


It's been at least twenty years since I first read 'Cat's Cradle'. I find KVJ's black humor entertaining, and it jives with my outlook on life.
Basically he believes that people do stupid things when they organize into large groups, the major religions are based on the worship of the penis, and war is the slaughter of the innocents.
KVJ's writing is certainly influenced by his WWII experiences. The futility of human struggle against his neighbors and the insanity of  Nuclear Weapons is a central theme in this book.
The spectre of the Cuban Missle crisis looms only a year behind 'Cat's Cradle's' publication.
Younger readers, including myself, have little context to compare to how terrifying that was . The slow and nebulous Global Warming threat and Terrorism are not even in the same ballpark.
It is hard to imagine how close humanity came to wiping themselves out for seemingly petty issues. Is that fear good for us. Did we learn anything. Certainly we've slowly ramped down the cold war rhetoric. If you asked most young people today I think the spectre of Mutually Assured Destruction would rank pretty low on their list.
Everything would be much better if we just sat face to face with the soles of our feet touching as opposed to having our hands around each others throats. (See book for the fictional religion, Bokononism)
Before I began writing this review I did a very bad thing, I went online and read the Wikipedia entry. I shan't do that again. It's a perfectly fine and exhaustive, but it may have tainted the experience.
I had just finished reading it an hour before and enjoyed it very much. Perhaps I should have waited a day or two  before starting the review.
Why should you read this book? It's sometimes silly, with funny words and a goofy, yet appealing, made up religion.
It's poignant, dark, well written, and extremely readable. A good rainy day would suffice. Try it, you'll not regret it.
Buy Cat's Cradle on Amazon.