Other Things Worthy of Your Time
Amazon.com Book Review: Kurt
Vonnegut's "The Sirens of Titan"
7/26/04
“It was a wonderfully clever story that was just as cleverly written, which says something by itself.
Anybody can come up with a random and 'wacky' set of events, push them beyond the point of being outrageous, and try to sell it off as worthy of your time just because it's crazy and original. But when you take those same things, and write them with the kind of flair and prose of Kurt Vonnegut, you realize they aren't just 'wacky', outrageous ideas he pulled off the top of his head at random, they're a selection of events and experiences meant to tell a story with an actual meaning to it. And that's another kind of original: it's genuine.
There's even a part in the book that would have been worthwhile even if the rest was terrible. A chapter begins describing these pointless, insignificant creatures who live buried and secluded in the middle of nowhere whose existence is so simple and meaningless that the only thing you notice about them is how you can't seem to care about them. It's almost as if the author is reminding you why you shouldn't. The funny thing is, the chapter ends with probably the most emotional scene in the entire story, if not any story you'll experience, and it features those same, once insignificant organisms.
Sirens of Titan isn't Slaughterhouse-Five. It isn't the type of mainstream story that you can pick up without going out of the way and expecting something different. Science Fiction just doesn't garner the kind of respect that appeals to proud readers who might only choose to read an author like Vonnegut merely for his namesake (because face it, famous books stay famous because they are famous). It's a shame though, because if there were more stories in the genre like this, things might be a bit different.”
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