By James M.
In his first novel published ever Kurt Vonnegut delivers a captivating 1984 esque novel about a not so far off future world in which the area has been divided into districts in order to better run production. The future world consists of powerful machines that create a society of automation. All of the menial tasks once done by the low skilled laborers have been replaced by high-speed machines.
Vonnegut tells a story about how the world became this and also the catastrophic effects of the new way of doing things. In the story the only people who benefit from the future society is the very wealthy upper class and the people who keep the world running; the engineers and managers of the various factories. The plot line is intresting thing about the story is it's told from two opposing point of views of Dr. Paul, a rich factory manager in a district and a religious leader named Shah of Bratpuhr, a spiritual leader ahead of a movement of the replaced lower class.
The story is tough to read without much reading experience, I would say a college or higher level of reading experience would be essential for full understanding of the novel. This is mainly because Vonnegut does very little to separate the two different plot roles, which is a major cause of confusion until about a quarter of the way into the book. The book is a insightful and captivating way to tell a story that was a first at the time it was written. It is full of symbolism and hidden meaning that make the story all the more interesting.
In general however I would definitely recommend this novel to anyone looking for a timeless classic about the future. I think the book applies to all readers because the plot line is very unexpected at times and the general theme is sort of scary because the world today is becoming more and more mechanized.
No comments:
Post a Comment