Lake Mohiga connects the hills housing Tarkington College to the Correctional Institution of Athena. And Eugene Debs Hartke has been a resident of both.
You could call him a veteran of these institutions.
I always leave a Vonnegut novel with a deep-seated feeling of rambunctious pessimism. What does truth really do? Just because there is no correct answer, doesn’t mean one shouldn’t ask the question.
Let me explain.
What is history? Sorry, that is another question. But this time let me give you my answer. It is a story. It’s literally there in the word itself, hidden under embellished experiences of the vanguard. And stories are often always fictional – it’s a bit too laborious and counterproductive to try and give the evidence which doesn’t help the writer does it?
In his signature non-linear drive, Vonnegut lists out the life and times of a man robbed of his destiny through the actions of others and his own. Gene is not a good man, in terms of morality and adherence to duties of personal and professional aptitude, but he is a man all the same. Whether it’s an adulterous father proud to forcibly draft his son into the Vietnam War, or a family gone insane through a hidden hereditary disease, Gene supplements this rich history with an aim to document a checklist of his own adultery and maniac government sponsored killing aboard. From what I can read, it’s quite a high number.
There are cracks in every democratic institution as a feeling of mass entitlement seeps into all people involved. Which can be a horrible thought when you find out that whether it be an ‘educational’ institution in terms of students or prisoners, Gene discovers that a democracy just creates mass delusions of support for dictators. In the end, only a few people and their choices matter, and everyone else goes along with it as they think it was made with their benefit in mind.
Just like a young Gene did when after a botched attempt to win a science fair by cheating ended with him becoming a war veteran at Vietnam, a teacher at two institutions and finally, an inmate at his former institution turned prison dying of TB.
As he says, young people should prepare
for failure rather than success, since failure is the main thing that is going
to happen to them.
+Brilliant characters with insightful flaws
+Exploration of themes at the core of the human condition
+The non-linear structure lends itself well to flashbacks
-A slightly extended middle half that contributed less than intended
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