Welcome to the Monkey House | Kurt Vonnegut

Welcome to the Monkey House | Kurt Vonnegut | Glen Williamson performs two of these stories as a play

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Welcome to the Mon...

	Welcome to the Monkey House Kurt Vonnegut The Dial Press, 1998 - 352 pages average customer review:based on 77 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

This collection of Vonnegut's short masterpieces share his audacious sense of humor and extraordinary creative vision.

Brilliant Young Vonnegut

This is a collection of Vonnegut short stories that many, maybe all, were published in magazines in the 50's 60's and possibly later. They are a collection insights into Kurt's sense of angle on human nature and the possibilities of our interactions and relations. I read the story Harrison Bergeron when I was in 7th grade and it changed my life forever. Seriously. I no longer thought of Star Trek and Star Wars as being the entire scope of sci-fi, to which I wasn't interested. I eventually have seen all episodes of the original ST, STNG, STDS9, and some of STV but that's neither here nor there. ST and other series like Dune and Hitchhikers have their place, and I've come to respect them, but to me there still is no better sci-fi than that of alt civilizations that play off of mans greed and/or what if things were different. If you've read other Vonnegut classics like Slaughter House 5 or Mother Night, this book gives you a little different look at his interests. This collection has a range of his views, hopes, and some zany characters like Cats Craddle and some subtlety of Breakfast of Champions put into short delightful stories. I love Vonnegut and between him and Herman Hesse I recommend their writings to anyone between the ages of 13 and death. Not that these are kids stories but that I would afford anyone the opportunity to have this author and especially the stories in this book affect them like they did me.

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Glen Williamson performs two of these stories as a play

Glen Williamson (Google him) has been performing two of these stories for years as a one-man play: "Who Am I This Time?" and "The Kid Nobody Could Handle."

"Cheers and congratulations again! Your performance Tuesday evening was truly extraordinary. I feel so fortunate to have been there. I called Kurt [Vonnegut] the next morning and raved about you - then wrote him a note and raved some more."
--Sally Forbes, Executive Director, The Beaux Arts Alliance, New York, NY

"It was so good to see your [Vonnegut] show, which I enjoyed enormously. The stories were delightful. There was a thread running through both stories - the oddball characters, and the need for imagination to give them their place in the community. I loved your characterizations, and was bubbling with mirth at the end of the "Romeo and Juliet" piece, as was the rest of the audience."
-- Andrew Floyd
Stroud, England

"I attended [The Kid Nobody Could Handle and Who Am I This Time?] with sixth, seventh, eighth graders from both Waldorf and public schools. The children were captivated. The plots and characters seemed to speak to them profoundly. Glen is a very skilled actor. He brought the characters to life beautifully, fleshing out the unique details and idiosyncrasies of each so that we all felt like we knew them well. He is a flexible, versatile actor able to portray an incredible range of characters. It was powerful and memorable.

You could hear a pin drop in that auditorium...and that's saying something for middle school kids."
-- Jill Wolcott
Lake Champlain Waldorf School
Shelburne, Vermont

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Some of Vonnegut's best work - but a word of advice...

A short story is a great format in that it allows a writer to focus in on a single idea or episode, then forces the writer to make their point quickly and concisely (or at least that's the hope). In the instances when Kurt Vonnegut executes that formula well in this collection of short stories, you get some of his clearest and most insightful work. At the same time, there are a few turkeys thrown into the mix, but they don't take much away from this book.

One thing I'd recommend to readers is that they read a story or two at a time, then read something else before returning to this collection. The stories start to sound and feel quite similar after a while and begin to lose their impact. I wish I could go back and space out my reading more than I did.

In my opinion, the best stories come early in the book with weaker tales bringing up the rear. However, another reviewer makes exactly the opposite point. Maybe I was just worn out on Vonnegut stories by the end, or maybe that's just the fun of reading something and having your own reaction to it. In the end, that's what makes Vonnegut so good: he makes you react as a reader.

Essential reading for the Vonnegut enthusiast.

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You'll never look at the game of chess the same

Vonnegut's vision of the future in the story "Harrison Bergeron" has haunted me since I first read it in 5th grade. So it's surprising to me that I hadn't read anything else by him until this year. Luckily, many of his other stories in "Welcome to the Monkey House" were just as fascinating or twisted or surreal.

Several of the tales included seemed to be autobiographical, and were often very simple, without much point but with a lot of feeling. One involved a play which he directed when he cast someone from town who nobody would ever think would be able to act and a girl who looked perfect for the role, and the night of the play he gets quite a surprise from both. It was written simply and very fun to read.

Of his fiction, many stories stand out in my memory. There was on that was narrated by a man who could leave his body and inhabit others, and it tells of a war between the people who had this ability and those who did not. Vonnegut boiled down a complex world into just a few pages and was able to convey the perspective perfectly so that I felt as though I knew exactly what it would be like to live outside of my own body.

My absolute favorite involved a chess match where the pieces were real people commanded by a general who was the king piece. Without giving much away, anytime a piece was lost to the other side, the person playing as that piece would be killed. An incredibly intense story, it had my heart beating out of my chest as I tried to force myself not to flip to the end and find out how everything was resolved.

Of course, as with nearly every compilation of short stories I've read, there were a few tales that didn't quite jive with my tastes, but thankfully the writing was still descriptive and colorful and efficient enough that I whizzed through those fairly quickly and was able to get on to the stories I enjoyed more.

One thing I know for sure after reading "Welcome to the Monkey House" is that I'll definitely be reading more Vonnegut in the future.

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