Welcome to the Monkey House by Kurt Vonnegut

The short-story collection Welcome to the Monkey House incorporates almost completely Vonnegut’s 1961 “Canary in the Cathouse”, which appeared within a few months of Slaughterhouse-Five and capitalized upon that breakthrough novel and the enormous attention it suddenly brought. Drawn from both specialized science fiction magazines and the big circulation magazines (Saturday Evening Post, Colliers, etc.) which Vonnegut had been one of the few science writers to sell, the collection includes some of his most accomplished work. The title story may be his most famous–a diabolical government asserts control through compulsory technology removing orgasm from sex– but Vonnegut’s bitterness and wit, not in his earlier work as poisonous or unshielded as it later became, is well demonstrated. Two early stories from Galaxy science fiction magazine and one from Fantasy & Science Fiction (the famous Harrison Bergeron) show Vonnegut’s careful command of a genre about which he was always ambivalent, stories like “More Stately Mansions” or “The Foster Portfolio” the confines and formula of a popular fiction of which he was always suspicious. Vonnegut’s affection for humanity and bewilderment as it’s corruption are manifest in these early works. Several of these stories (which appeared in Collier’s) were commissioned by Vonnegut’s Cornell classmate and great supporter Knox Burger, also born in 1922.

The book club will meet Tuesday, June 12th at 6:00 p.m. at the library. Copies of the book can be picked up at the library.