Welcome to the Monkey House: A Collection of Short Works

A must read for Vonnegut fans. Although the bulk of the stories remain true to his unique satirical and witty style, some of them ventures outside of his genre. There is a little bit romance in some stories, others deal with more serious matter like the war and the atomic bomb. I was especially engrossed with the story “All The King’s Horse” which was very poignant and distressing, unusual to Vonnegut’s humorous style. Some other stories had characters who played parts in other novels, as well as concepts and locations. As usual, the character are wonderfully developed with depth and aliveness, the description are rich and vivid. I never once got bored or found myself skimming through tiresome bouts. It succeeded in keeping me interested and I relentlessly got through all the stories. Another story that I liked a lot is “Harrison Bergeron”, appalling yet funny with a surprising twists. But each story is unique and have something of its own to give off.

Glen Williamson (Google him) has been performing two of these stories for years as a one-man play: "Who Am I This Time?" and "The Kid Nobody Could Handle." "Cheers and congratulations again! Your performance Tuesday evening was truly extraordinary. I feel so fortunate to have been there. I called Kurt [Vonnegut] the next morning and raved about you - then wrote him a note and raved some more." --Sally Forbes, Executive Director, The Beaux Arts Alliance, New York, NY "It was so good to see your [Vonnegut] show, which I enjoyed enormously. The stories were delightful. There was a thread running through both stories - the oddball characters, and the need for imagination to give them their place in the community. I loved your characterizations, and was bubbling with mirth at the end of the "Romeo and Juliet" piece, as was the rest of the audience." -- Andrew Floyd Stroud, England "I attended [The Kid Nobody Could Handle and Who Am I This Time?] with sixth, seventh, eighth graders from both Waldorf and public schools. The children were captivated. The plots and characters seemed to speak to them profoundly. Glen is a very skilled actor. He brought the characters to life beautifully, fleshing out the unique details and idiosyncrasies of each so that we all felt like we knew them well. He is a flexible, versatile actor able to portray an incredible range of characters. It was powerful and memorable. You could hear a pin drop in that auditorium...and that's saying something for middle school kids." -- Jill Wolcott Lake Champlain Waldorf School Shelburne, Vermont

This book is a compilation of previously printed short stories. As can be expected in a large group of stories, some are better than others. One of the stories I liked was Harrison Bergeron, a satire of the claim that people should be equal in results. Others were Welcome to the Monkey House, Report on the Barnhouse Effect, The Euphio Question, and EPICAC. Most of the stories were interesting. Other readers will probably have different opinions, so the book is well worth reading.

Watched an old interview of kurt Vonnegut on Jon Stewart and Jon Stewart said it was Vonnegut's books that got him through his adolescence. I am experiencing my mid life adolescence. My son has schizo effective disorder hearing voices and seeing things. Some have explained this as a rather sane reaction to a crazy world. If the way humans behave doesn't make you crazy then you have the mental health problems not the other way around. What amazed me most is that many of these stories were written over sixty years ago. When I see the date of publication of the stories I am shocked - they are all relevant to problems we have today. All are stories that reflect Mr Vonnegut's love of humanity and his sadness with the lack of broad perspective we have as a group. I suspect some of the personal tragedies in his life led to this depth of insight in his writing. Every story in this collection is a gem. I only wish he were still alive so I could thank him for helping me to get through this difficult part of my life. Recommend to anyone and everyone.

Sometimes the most competent tool for an existence you want to escape for the moment is to whisk yourself back to another time, preferably one that is mostly imaginary, since it is filtered through the lens of literary genius Kurt Vonnegut. "Welcome to the Monkey House" serves that purpose for those of a certain age with flashes of bliss from the momentary displacement to a land of voluptuous memories. We identify with the madness; we identify with the sanity. It is all real, or at least vividly imagined. These are the short stories Vonnegut sold while he worked on his memorable novels, which are all readily available here at Amazon. They are all worthy of our attention as historic narratives of a cultural epoch of our lives from one of the 20th century's most vigorous and lasting literary voices. He continues to speak to our dreams and fears and leaves it to us to decide which is which. These snippets offer insight into a culture little known elsewhere. It is, at turns, insightful into human nature or irreverent, even simultaneously when it suited the author's perception of his world, focused mainly on the middle of the last century. An exhilarating thing about this collection of short stories is you get servings of farce ricocheting through decades of life on parallel paths with tidbits of poignant ordinary existence and the occasional stark truth of the ignoble mindlessness of such things as how war is often conducted. Savor these emotional sojourns one at a time or in a sitting or two: enjoy as snacks or feasts. Browse until you're satisfied. If you love language, read them aloud -- to someone you care about or just yourself -- for the pure joy of the sounds. This is a delicious read.

Love the book and the author himself! Unfortunately, the book didn’t have anything covering it or protecting it during shipping and delivery, so it came in bent. It is what it is.

Early short stories from Vonnegut. Always great to read again.

As usual great stuff from Vonnegut, this was brought to rejuvenate my old Vonnegut collection.

bin noch nicht ganz durch...ich liebe Short-stories. I have always been a Vonnegut fan. Some of the stories are still familiar, though I read them over 40 years ago! Greetings from cloudy Franconia!! Carl

Very good science fiction and fantasy stories.

I was surprised to find how many of these stories I'd heard about or read in other collections. I hadn't realised that I enjoyed this author.