Cat's Cradle

Kurt Vonnegut - 287 pps.

Like the buds of spring blooming on the trees, so did my spirit jump to life as I finished "Cat's Cradle". Cheery, uplifting, and life-affirming, it is filled with jubilant lines such as "What Can a Thoughtful Man Hope for Mankind on Earth, Given the Experience of the Past Million Years?"..."Nothing." and chapter titles like "Julian Castle Agrees with Newt that Everything is Meaningless". "Cradle" is a testament to the power of the human spirit and the simple joys life holds for us all.

"Cradle" is about the narrator, known only as John, and his zany efforts to write a book about what several prominent people were doing when the first atom bomb landed. His work entangles him with the family of deceased physicist and father of the atom bomb, the fictional Felix Hoenikker. After getting mixed up with the Hoenikkers, John ends up going to the fictional island of San Lorenzo where he encounters the religion of Bokononism, founded by Bokonon, and eventually witnesses the heartwarming end of human civilization.

Don't you feel all tingly?

The writing is very good. Absurdity is used to great effect; Bokonist hymns consist of Bokonon's calypso songs and John's responses of "Um." to the ridiculous things that people around him say are hilarious. Critiques of humanity's insatiable bloodlust and consistently terrible political systems are made concisely and effectively. Felix Hoenikker is one of the most fascinating characters I have encountered. And the appearance of the mythical Bokonon at the end is surprising and well-executed. All this and "Cradle" is a page-turner to boot.

Yet "Cradle" still came up short in some ways. The existential nihilism that is at the heart of many of the characters makes it difficult for the reader to empathize with them. And the characters who are not total nihilists tend to not resemble actual people. It's hard to like them too. Also, scenes seemingly designed to elicit emotion do not always work. When Ambassador Minton gives his passionate speech, a scene with great potential for drawing emotion, the reader has a hard time making Minton's pleas for compassion and peace jibe with the nihilistic tones of the work. How can we have compassion when there is no one and nothing to care about?

They believe in nothing

This lack of sympathetic characters and emotionally stirring moments makes "Cradle" a highly intellectual affair--and even in that department it does not always deliver. The worst failure concerns Bokonism. "Cradle" suggests that Bokonism offers hope for the human race, especially in the closing scene where Bokonon reiterates that if life gives you lemons, make lemonade. Yet if there is no true meaning, then there are no "foma that make you brave and kind and healthy and happy." There is no lemonade.

This ultimately makes the end of "Cradle" far less stirring than it should have been. In the last chapters there is a remarkable convergence of all the important themes of the work, yet the ending still did not work for me. Either humanism, thinly veiled as Bokonism, has some intrinsic meaning or it doesn't, but it can't have both qualities. That just doesn't make sense. In the lovely words of Newt Hoenikker: "See the cat? See the cradle?"

-Heathcliff