Maybe there should be a law that stops families from publishing the “unpublished manuscripts” of dead authors. Just maybe the author knew in his or her lifetime that these works should be kept in the trunk.
Saying that, I just finished LOOK AT THE BIRDIE, a collection of “unpublished short fiction” by Kurt Vonnegut. It is a mixture of good and not so good very short stories, but it IS Vonnegut. In other words, how could it be really bad?
If I have a complaint it is that there are no dates connected to any of the stories. It would have been interesting to see if we could watch the development of this literary genius. Because some of the pieces seem to be first drafts, I wondered how early in his career they were written.
The stories cover subjects that are typical Vonnegut. We meet a machine named Confido, that will listen to your deepest secrets and make you happy. Only, remember this is Vonnegut, the results are not what you expected.
Or meet the man who has witnessed a crime and finds himself in a Kafkaesque situation with the man who is basically the town’s police, judge and jury.
New meaning is given to the old adage about little drops of water and little grains of sand in the story of how a woman scorned gets even with an ex-lover. (This might have been my favorite ).
The stories capture the anxieties during the Cold War and the Second World War, a subject that Vonnegut was very familiar with, but there is something that is universal in each. These are stories that you would expect from the pen of Kurt Vonnegut. For a more polished collection, may I suggest Welcome to the Monkey House. Also,it might be a biased opinion, but the best anti-war book written is his very personal Slaughterhouse Five.
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