"Those who make peaceful change impossible make violent revolution inevitable"Golden Satire I agree with a professor of mine when he told me that Slaughterhouse Five is better written, but Player Piano is more entertaining. This book is not at the peak of what Vonnegut is capable of, but it is a well done piece of satire that is wonderfully entertaining. One thing I enjoy about Vonnegut is the model T writing. By this I mean for him it is the bare essentials. He writes only what is necessary for either plot or character. Now I do enjoy the verbose nature of some of the grand old novels or the stream of conscious experimentations, but when I settle into a Vonnegut I love every moment of it. This isn't his best novel, but I give it five stars because of the special affection it holds to me as being one of the first novels I read growing up. I highly recommend this to anyone who likes good entertaining satire.
"The machines are to practically everybody what the white men were to the Indians. People are finding that, because of the way the machines are changing the world, more and more of their old values don't apply any more. People have no choice but to become second-rate machines themselves, or wards of the machines."
Proteus' rebellion against his industrialized world starts quietly enough, with the acquisition of a farm and the conscious sabotage of a promotion he deserved. However, he eventually crosses paths with radicals who saw fit to not only stem the tides of mass-production, but to destroy all of the machines in the process.
Interesting enough story-line, right? Yes, but the story's potential is better than its execution. Many great ideas are left unpolished. Besides Dr. Proteus, there are no sympathetic characters in this tale, which made it difficult to root for the revolution's failure or success. Plus, things spiraled so badly out of control that you don't even know if success was achieved by anyone's measure. This book was one giant crescendo, and the actual revolution occurs in about five pages at the end, hastily described and leaving way too much to the imagination. There were many characters introduced independently who eventually met at the end- not in a logical way that sewed everything together, but in a chaotic assembly of random people (e.g., the Shah of Bratpuhr- what was that guy's purpose other than comedic relief?).
