Jailbird

by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Book Overview

" Kurt Vonnegut] has never been more satirically on-target. . . . Nothing is spared."-- People Jailbird takes us into a fractured and comic, pure Vonnegut world of high crimes and misdemeanors in... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0440154472
• ISBN13: 9780440154471
• Release Date: January 1980
• Publisher: Dell
• Weight: 0.36 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Rich With Irony

Vonnegut has a way of combining Orwell's eye with Updike's wit, and the sum is greater still, than the parts.Jailbird takes readers on a long ride, beginning in WWII and ending somewhere in amoral corporate America, a land where friends come eaiser if you're the head of the "Downhome Records" division of the awesome RAMJAC Corporation.Vonnegut tells a compelling tale, rich with ironic twists and tiny coincedences, all of which roll nicely into the growing snowball that Jailbird becomes.Jailbird is a fabulous for Vonnegut first-timers, largely because it does not draw on past works the way many of his other classics do.That said, if you are a Vonnegut reader, you quickly feel at home, comfortably but helplessly watching Walter Starbuck run his life into the ground.How Vonnegut can paint the world of inalterable predestiny without any sense of cynicism is beyond me, but you never feel a sense of impending doom, only a happy, benign resignation.All that must be, will be, yet, it's gotta be, so...why not.This is a book you will reread countless times.

wow, you can never go wrong with vonnegut!

Jailbird deserves a five star rating. But for many vonnegut enthusiasts all of his books have 5 star ratings. One can never go wrong when reading vonnegut! Always the black humorist,making our own lives just a little bit easier to live.I have read every word of his entire collected works. Novels, short stories, plays, essays and even commencement speeches. Jailbird, Sirens of Titan, and Cats Cradle are all incredible works for the first time reader to gain an unparalleled apreciation for this fun loving, playful author. Vonnegut is a must have!!

poignant portrait of fallen bureaucrat

Definitely the best of Vonnegut's novels that I've read, Jailbird is the story of Walter F. Starbuck, the smallest co-conspirator in the Watergate scandal. Having made his loyalties the best as he could, Walter finds himself in prison for withholding evidence against Nixon, even though he really had no true connection to him or respect from his fellow conspriators. After prison, Walter falls once again, committing a crime that mirrors his Watergate involvement in quite a few ways, and he goes to jail for the second time.Vonnegut's ingenious humor is present always in the book, and his prose is bedazzlingly perfect for the subject. Even though the novel may seem sentimental at times, that seems to be Vonnegut's purpose: his character is a sentimental man and bureaucrat. Readers should note that Vonnegut also uses some symbolism to perfect effect, making the book subtler than most Vonnegut novels. All these elements are Vonnegut at his best; he recreates, hilariously and perfectly, the political world of modern times. Throughout the story, Jailbird provides a pitiful hero, knocked down over and over again by his own fault in the bureaucratic world he has chosen for his home. It seems not so much the facelessness of the bureacratic system that destroys Walter(a theme visited over and over again in too many books, movies, etc.) as his own attempts to try and become part of that system and his emotional view of this world as a place where people are always considerate; his own desire to be a successful, protected, and respected man is the thing that makes him loyal and willing for all the wrong reasons and to the wrong people. In the end, Walter F. Starbuck is a victim of himself, a "jailbird."

great

Although I haven't read all of his books, this one is the best that I've come across. Very funny, ironic, witty and whatever makes a book worth reading.

Vonnegut at His Best

Anyone claiming that Vonnegut went into a "glut" in the 70's needs to have their reading glasses readjusted. Not only is this the best novel that Vonnegut wrote, it is the best novel I've ever read. After comparing "Jailbird" to Vonnegut classics such as "Breakfast of Champions", "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle", I see no reason not to believe that this is Vonnegut's best work yet. As usual Vonnegut strikes a major blow on the wealthy, the crazy, and the losers of this world. Even Kilgore Trout steps in to make a brief appearance. Whether you are a Vonnegut fan or not this is a must read novel.