Slapstick
Ratings79
Average rating3.6
Kurt Vonnegut's 8th novel and he reaches new levels of niche weird.
The introduction is “Dedicated to the memory of Arthur Stanley Jefferson and Norvell Hardy, two angels of my time.”
This reader sees no Slaptsick per se in the story told, but he sure reads about being Lonesome no More.
Vonnegut gives the game away in the intro. He writes that “THIS IS THE CLOSEST I will ever come to writing an autobiography. I have called it “Slapstick” because it is grotesque, situational poetry—like the slapstick film comedies, especially those of Laurel and Hardy, of long ago. It is about what life feels like to me. There are all these tests of my limited agility and intelligence. They go on and on. The fundamental joke with Laurel and Hardy, it seems to me, was that they did their best with every test. They never failed to bargain in good faith with their destinies, and were screamingly adorable and funny on that account. • • • There was very little love in their films. There was often the situational poetry of marriage, which was something else again”
Let's leave Kurt there and just say that to this reader this is genuinely strange but audacious fiction. Very niche. The passing Slaughterhouse Five readers was going to wander by this one, surely.
The plot includes;
The collapse of his relationship with his sister.
His none relationship with his parent's.
Family schisms in general.
Any rich idiot can be the President of the US.
The coming of the Chinese as a world power
Pandemics.
And much more that I can hardly think about such is this mixed up muddled up world of the life of Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain. This is his memoir and as the President of the United States.
And this is how Kurt Vonnegut Jr felt when this strangely compelling mélange of oddness that is, to repeat him, the closest he “will ever come to writing an autobiography”?
If this is the case then he had one oddball of a relationship with his parents and his sister and all those around him.
One for the Vonnegut reader in my opinion and recommended as such.
My review of number 1 Player Piano.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6205354368
My review of number 2 The Sirens Of Titan. https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6267103559
My review of number 3 Mother Night.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/6287961968
My review of number 4 Cats Cradle.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/231371451
My review of number 5 God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/231371734
My review of number 6 Slaughter House Five
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/231370983
My review of number 7 Breakfast Of Champions.
https://www.goodreads.com/review/show/231371515
Simultaneously feeling like Vonnegut's most personal novel as well as Vonnegut's most bull-shitted novel, Slapstick serves as one of the most Vonnegut-esque books. Goofy, crude, whimsical, and poignant, I found myself constantly thinking about one-liners and random lines of dialogue, just reflecting on their subtle brilliance that borderlines on obscenely dense. Love this book, and man, I love Vonnegut.
One sentence synopsis... Presented as the autobiography of Wilbur Daffodil-11 Swain, the King of Manhattan, this novel is ostensibly about the absurdity of loneliness and the subversive power of institutionalized “family” - “Lonesome No More!” .
Read it if you like... if you're a Vonnegut completionist, otherwise spare yourself. .
Dream casting... the main characters are described as twin geniuses, both born ugly and extremely tall. They were played by Jerry Lewis and Madeline Kahn in the 1984 adaptation of this novel. I wouldn't wish this role on anyone.
There were a few funny and interesting parts, but overall I think the plot was kind of a mess.
La evaluación de Payasadas no puede dejar de hacerse en clave comparativa respecto al resto del universo literario Vonnegutniano. Y es en esa comparación en la que esta novela sale perdiendo porque, sin dejar de ser una obra interesante, no está a la altura de Madre noche, Cuna de gato o Desayuno de campeones.
Una de las características más destacables de Vonnegut es su notable capacidad de construcción de personajes, algo que aparece en Payasadas en una forma muy atenuada. Y el absurdo que puebla sus obras resulta, en esta ocasión, algo tosco y no tan efectivo a la hora de exponer los demonios subyacentes de la sociedad moderna.
A favor, el componente autobiográfico, aunque quizás ello sólo sea de interés para aquellos Vonnegutnianos.
Definitely not his best, but there were enough Vonnegut tropes to keep me interested, and “Why don't you take a flying fuck at a rolling doughnut?” will stay with me.
