SIRENS OF TITANS is startlingly mature for a novel written in 1959 (...). The insights about life and reality which one finds all the way through TIMEQUAKE already are fully developed here.

What insights? The ones obvious to those with ears to hear: that life is governed by accidents rather than the will of divinity; that the concept of "hell" is hideous and wrong; that humans are capable both of great kindness and great depravity; that irony seems to rule the universe with an iron fist; that despite the pains and hardships of life, there still is an astonishing richness of beauty, of wonder, and much to laugh heartily about. When one finds these last three, one might do best by paraphrasing the words of Vonnegut's dad: "If this isn't nice, what is?"

The novel's plot is, as with all classic Vonnegut novels, remarkably serpentine, ingenious, pyrotechnic, comic, and irrelevant. The core of the book is the worldview--but one cannot understand the worldview without experiencing the plot. Form equals content. A neat trick!

...

As usual, Vonnegut's SIRENS conjures for me the works of Philip K. Dick, Walter Kaufmann, and Tim Miller. I scarcely expect any readers of this review to be so reminded.

And yet I am certain, based upon e-mail responses to my Amazon.com reviews over the years, that there is, in fact, a recognizable thread running through the works of the above authors. In fact, those for whom my words reverberate might do well to trace the thread of my reviews: you will find lots of other fun literary works which most probably will reverberate for you.

For the rest of you, forget it. You either get it or you don't. There just ain't no darn sense in trying to explain.


Perhaps his best book   November 4, 2001
 30 out of 31 found this review helpful

I've read many of Kurt Vonnegut's novels, and this is perhaps his best one of all (quite a high complement indeed, when considering the man is, in my opinion at least, one of the foremost writers of the 20th century.) Vonnegut's wit is acerbic and as on-target as ever; this time he expells on us about the meaning of life... or the meaninglessness of it. While this is perhaps not his most profound and meaningful novel (which would probably be Cat's Cradle), and not his most purposeful one (undoubtedly Slaughterhouse-Five), it is perhaps his wittiest and one of his funniest, and works the best as satire. It is astonishingly well-written. Quite a bit leap over his already very good first book, Player Piano. This has more of a plot than later novels would, without using much of the non-linear storytelling format that Vonnegut would later make famous use of.

At this point, I also feel the need to comment on the review titled "whence..." The reviewer is taking the details of this book too seriously. The point of this book is not the plot or the details; it is the principle, the style. The reviewer goes to pains to point out scientific inaccuracies and plot holes in the book (yes, the escape maneuver from Mercury is implausible; yes, things happen in the book without any apparent logic or reason; but neither of these matter in the larger context of the book.) This book is not meant to be hard science fiction; nor should it be compared to scientifically stringent fiction by writers such as Arthur C. Clarke (whom the reviewer referenced.) In fact, I would say that this book is not science fiction at all. It is satire, pure and simple. The scientific ideas and elements in the plot are not meant to be taken seriously (as is often the case with actual hard science fiction; for example, the aformentioned Clarke's "The Fountains of Paradise", in which he propagates his vision for a space elevator.) Vonnegut uses these only as means to an end. This is seriously-intended satire (albeit highly enjoyable to read) put into a science fiction framework. This is actually, I would argue, what makes the book great.

The genius of Vonnegut is that he takes highly serious subjects and puts them into a context in his books that puts them in a universal light where they can be examined: through satire, he places deathly serious subjects in improbable situations where we can all laugh at them, be entertained by them, but also examine their reality in depth. All books by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. work on two levels. The first is the "skin deep" level, on which the books appear to be merely rough-and-tumble, hilarious, little entertaining adventures. However, there is also the deeper element that is always there, the hard themes that resonate beneath the surface. Many writers treat such things entirely seriously, which is fine, but Vonnegut's style puts it in a format that everyone can relate to. This is why he is such a great and important writer, and why so many of us relate to him and have learned so much from him. Perhaps our most acute AND entertaining social critic, Kurt Vonnegut is an author that we are lucky to have, and this is one of the brightest shining gems in his canon.


One of Vonnegut's most entertaining and funniest novels   February 4, 2007
 19 out of 20 found this review helpful

Today when Kurt Vonnegut is regarded as one of the great American novelists of the second half of the 20th century, it is hard to remember that once upon a time he was regarded as a Sci-fi writer. This was the novel that most solidified that reputation, though it had begun earlier with PLAYER PIANO and cemented by both CAT'S CRADLE and SLAUGHTER-HOUSE FIVE. Only gradually in the early 1970s did it become obvious to all that he was not really a practitioner of Sci-fi as it had become to be defined in the United States.

Even in THE SIRENS OF TITAN it should have been obvious that he was more an experimental writer exploiting the Sci-fi genre than doing the same sort of thing that Robert Heinlein, Isaac Asimov, Arthur C. Clarke, and their ilk were attempting. For one thing, Vonnegut didn't care much for predicting the future, the scientific plausibility of anything he was saying, or any of the other traditional aspects of Sci-fi. Rather, exploiting the genre on a superficial level gave him a freedom that was lacking in most other mainstream fiction at the time. It gave him license to think and imagine and write about almost anything.

This novel ostensibly tells the story of Malachi Constant, hardly the captain of his own fate, but an unwilling tool of fate. More precisely, as we learn, the novel is the story of an alien stranded on Titan, a moon of Saturn, who needs a spare part for his broken space ship. All of human history turns out to have been generated by a distant civilization for the sole purpose of getting Salo, as our alien is known, his missing part. Vonnegut uses farce in telling Malachi's story in order to undercut traditional understandings of God, religion, and the notion that humanity is at the center of the divine narrative. I must confess that I am baffled why so many religious people find this disturbing. I'm a devout Christian myself and secure in my faith, and find Vonnegut's account of the meaninglessness of life and his depiction of the Church of God the Utterly Indifferent to be comical rather than threatening. Some Christians seem to feel that unless you can hermetically seal all believers off from all views that differ from their own. But for those whose faith is a little less fragile, this will stand as a highly entertaining book with whose basic themes one will disagree. As a farce, it has much in common with other farces, such as Voltaire's CANDIDE, the book which in many ways it most resembles.

Those this is a book with many virtues, perhaps the aspect I most enjoy is Vonnegut's absolutely delightful style. Many others would later attempt to mimic his way with a sentence, but few would do so as successfully. He helped introduce a new level of anarchy into the modern novel and in many ways paved the way for such writers as Thomas Pynchon, who perhaps exceeded him in ambition but certainly didn't match him in eloquence and grace. What is most amazing about this book is how much he grew as a writer during the period between the publication of PLAYER PIANO and THE SIRENS OF TITAN. Though entertaining and often compelling, PLAYER PIANO is obviously the work of an apprentice writer; THE SIRENS OF TITAN is a fully mature work. It definitely belongs on the list of his very finest novels, immediately behind such novels as SLAUGHTER HOUSE-FIVE and BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS.

I strongly recommend this to anyone who either wants to read Vonnegut for the first time or who wishes to explore his art further after having read other novels first. It shows as well as any Vonnegut's gift for language, his outrageous sense of humor, and his bleak view of existence. It definitely belongs on any list of first-rate American novels with which one should be familiar.


Rest in Peace   April 12, 2007
 16 out of 19 found this review helpful

Kurt Vonnegut has died; He had slipped from my radar and the next thing I knew he was gone. Recent pictures and footage of him show a man less old, than in disrepair, who nonetheless didn't actually look old. In the end he still seemed so young.

This title came to my attention after the same manner many do; a trusted friend assured me that a book I didn't think I was interested in was a book I'd be interested in. And I was. Sirens of Titan captures the same absurdist tone of all the Vonnegut books and features a similar hapless protagonist, acted on and uncomprehending. As you read the last line of this beautifully structured book, you can conclude that life is a meaningless heartless equation, or that the universe knows exactly what it is doing.

So, thank you for Mother Night. Thank you for Rented a tent, a tent, a tent. Thank you for Sirens of Titan. Thank you for not successfully killing yourself. Thank you for the horrible understanding of evil in your books, and the ravishing beauty too. Thank you. Thank you...

Rest in Peace, Kurt Vonnegut. Sorry to see you go.