Word: vonnegut
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Dates: during 1990-1999
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...ostensible premise is that, on Feb. 13th, 2001, the universe suddenly shrinks, forcing us all to relive 10 years of experiences without changing a thing. But the plot's all just a springboard for Vonnegut's meandering, anecdotal and highly autobiographical discussion of life, death, history, religion, war, politics, family values and "the death of American eloquence" (among many, many other things...
...almost as if Vonnegut wrote a novel, decided it was crap, then wrote a sort of disjointed memoir over it, using elements of the original book to illustrate (or simply to accompany) assorted observations and opinions...
Which is, in fact, exactly what he did. Timequake was scheduled for publication some years ago, but Vonnegut pulled the plug just before the book went to press. His reason, as he explained at the Brattle Theatre Tuesday night, was that he "didn't know what the hell it was about." Suddenly one book short of a three-book contract, Vonnegut spent the next few years overhauling the novel, drastically paring down the original "temporal anomaly" plot and filling the void with personal remembrances and ruminations...
...there are shortcomings to this method, Vonnegut is fully aware of them. Throughout the book, he freely admits that he possesses neither the patience nor the desire to create three-dimensional characters. "If you create a character," he explained at the Brattle, "he's going to use up the whole book. You'll never get to talk." He attributes his historically lukewarm critical reception to this anti-character prejudice (and to his stubborn refusal to use semicolons). Basically, he doesn't care. He wants to talk, and he wants his voice to be heard...
...that Vonnegut's voice has ever been very difficult to discern in any of his books. His own unapologetically leftwing, anti-technology standpoint is abundantly clear in each one of his savagely ironic novels. In Timequake, though, he gives it full throttle, often ranting about modern America for chapters on end without returning to the world of Kilgore Trout, his fictitious "other self...