About this title: Told with deadpan humour and bitter irony, Kurt Vonnegut's cult tale of global destruction preys on our deepest fears of witnessing Armageddon and, worse still, surviving it ...Dr Felix Hoenikker, one of the founding 'fathers' of the atomic bomb, has left a deadly legacy to the world. For he is the inventor of 'ice-nine', a lethal chemical capable ...
Note: This is a general synopsis. Each listing is described below.
Edition: 79th
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Dell Pub Co, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780440111498ISBN:0440111498
Description: Very Good- As issued No Jacket. Spine lean, corner bumps, creases to the front cover, creases and dampstaining to the rear cover, pages age toning, and other light to moderate shopwear. As it says in the books of Bokonon: "Tiga Gotta Hunt, Bird gotta Fly, Man gotta sit and wonder Why, Why Why, Tiga gotta Sleep, Bird Gotta Land, Man Gotta Tell himself He understand. " (quoted from memory so it might not be exact. ) Fiction? Science fiction? Anthropology dissertation? Just read the book, its a ... read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Dell Pub Co, New York, U.S. A
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780440111498ISBN:0440111498
Description: Good. Some wear to edges, light creasing and yellowing; good solid book. Quantity Available: 1. Shipped Weight: Under 500 grams. Category: Fiction ISBN: 0440111498 Inventory No: 078141. read more
Binding: Trade paperback
Publisher: Dial Press
Date Published: 1998
ISBN-13:9780385333481ISBN:038533348X
Description: Fair. No dust jacket as issued. Cover has a lot of wear. Same ISBN, different cover art. Trade paperback (US). Glued binding. 304 p. Audience: General/trade. read more
Binding: Mass-market paperback
Publisher: Dell
Date Published: 1982
ISBN-13:9780440111498ISBN:0440111498
Description: Very good. No dust jacket as issued. 191 p. 1982 paperback edition from Dell. VERY GOOD, gift inscription as by "Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. " inside is definately NOT by Vonnegut. read more
Description: Good. Shows some signs of wear, and may have some markings on the inside. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Description: Acceptable. Former Library book. Book has some water damage, but book is still completely readable. Shipped to over one million happy customers. Your purchase benefits world literacy! read more
Binding: Paperback
Publisher: Holt
Date Published: 1963
Description: Acceptable. Small tears at spine base. Tanned pages. Front cover crease. Slight Spinal creasing. No store stamps or marks. Slight edgewear. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Dell
Date Published: 1965
Description: Fair. This is Vonnegut before Slaughterhouse, FIRST dell printing from 1965, condition is fair/poor, complete, clean, but heavy creasing from reading, bottom letters on spine have peeled off, has tanning and age spotting to inside pages. Fun, vintage cover art you must have for your Kurt collection! Complete book. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Dell Pub Co
Date Published: 1971
Description: Fair. Cover has marks, heavy chipping, bumping, small tears, edgewear, price, feltmarks-Edgewear & marks on edge-Bumped / dogeared pgs-Yellowing-Dents-Spine slant. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Dell
Date Published: 1969
ISBN-13:9780440111498ISBN:0440111498
Description: Good. Red cover; Dell 1972, seventeenth printing mass market paperback; cover wear; taped spine and part of red at spine missing; dampstain on corner. read more
Binding: Mass Market Paperback
Publisher: Dell Pub Co, New York, U.S.A.
Date Published: 1997
ISBN-13:9780440111498ISBN:0440111498
Description: Good. Cover has bumping, marks, scuffs, chips, scratches, gauges-Edgewear-Marks on edge-Bumping pgs-Dog-eared-Marks on pgs-Yellowing--Cocked. read more
"Cat's Cradle is not my favourite Vonnegut book, but was the one that had the greatest impact on my life.
I was in grade eleven and I was below average student. If I had any chance of getting into University, I would need to show some significant improvement in pretty much all of my classes. I would probably have to take both English and Math in summer school just to have a shot at even being in the University level stream.
The problem was that I really didn't care too much one way or the other.
Perhaps the turning point for me was my grade eleven English teacher. Mr.White was one of those teachers who really gave a damn for both the subject and the students he taught. It was in his class that I read Cat's Cradle as my novel study. I had been reading a lot of science fiction, and it looked like something I might actually enjoy. Besides, it was short and written in really small chapters - how hard could it be?
While it wasn't exactly a hard read, I found myself struggling with the book because it was just so different from anything I had read before. For one thing, in the science fiction I had read there was an attempt at plausibility. The idea that this could really happen was to me an unbreakable rule of fiction. Yet here was this guy writing a story - a story for grown-ups!- that didn't give a hoot for plausibility. And yet, and yet. In my fifteen-year old brain the notion that somehow a great truth could be revealed by telling a great lie took root. Perhaps this was my first exposure to how fiction could be used to express an idea in clearer more powerful way than a mere essay ever could. While I certainly did not understand, let alone agree with, the author's mistrust of science, government and religion, I was excited to discover this new (to me) way of writing fiction.
So, still excited by these insights, I submitted my essay to Mr.White and was shocked when a gave me a C for it. I was furious! So I misspelled every fourth word and wrote the whole thing in one paragraph, big deal! And sure I left out some commas and put my punctuation marks outside of my quotation marks. Shouldn't the obvious brilliance of my ideas negate these trivial little errors? Apparently not. I think it was then that it finally dawned on me that if I ever wanted people to hear what I had to say, then there were a few rules I was going to have to learn. So I applied myself to that class and within two months I was transfered to the higher level English. Luckily for me, Mr.White was my teacher there as well.
A year and a half later I even managed to squeak into University."
"I have actually read this book twice. It is extremely forgettable to me, which is funny because The New York Times praises it as being "A free-wheeling vehicle...an unforgettable ride!" I did not intentionally read this book twice. I read it, then I saw it on my shelf and thought I needed to read it since it has been there for awhile. As I started reading it I realized that I had already read it. Oddly, the same thing happened with Slaughterhouse V, also by Vonnegut. His books are so out there that I just can't get interested in them. They are not horrible, but they are so different that I just can't relate to them at all. I guess I like to see myself in characters or I like to be connected to the story somehow. His books seem to be so far fetched that I can't remember them because I never really cared about the characters or the story. But, now that it is fresh in my memory, at least for the time being, I can say that there are some interesting ideas in this book. I like the concept, and I even don't mind the story. There are some interesting characters, but something is just missing for me. I wouldn't advise anyone to stay away from this book, maybe it will appeal to you, but it isn't my favorite."
"Vonnegut's vision of the end of the world by the substance called Ice-9 is a poetic masterpiece in his own unique and darkly humorous style. Like strolling along and smelling beautiful flowers on the way to Armageddon. Wonderful."
"Cat's Cradle is not nearly as good as Slaghterhouse Five. I even prefer the less well-known Galapagos. Perhaps I am just getting old, but there seemed to be too much cleverness to no effect and little substance. Still, there is enough there an well enough written to make it worth the read."
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