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Type of bind: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN num: 9780385333870
ISBN number: 0385333870
Label: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Manufacturer: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Quantity: 1
Page Count: 336
Printing Date: January 12, 1999
Publishing house: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Release Date: January 12, 1999
Sale Popularity Level: 13038
Studio: Dial Press Trade Paperback
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“Beautiful…provocative, arresting reading.”–USA Today
KURT VONNEGUT is a master of contemporary American literature. His grey humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination very first captured America’s attention in The Sirens of Titan in 1959 and established him as “a true artist”* with Cat’s Cradle in 1963. He is, as Graham Greene has declared, “one of the best living American writers.”
Galápagos takes the reader back one million years, to a.d. 1986. A simple vacation cruise suddenly becomes an evolutionary journey. Thanks to an apocalypse, a small group of survivors stranded on the Galápagos Islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave new, and totally different human race. Here, America’s master satirist looks at our world and shows us all that is sadly, madly awry–and all that is worth saving.
“Vonnegut is a postmodern Mark Twain... Galápagos is a madcap genealogical adventure.”–The New York Times Book Review
* The New York Times
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Rated by buyers 
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When reading Vonnegut, I find myself rethinking subjects I pass over in day-to-day life without a second thought. It makes me feel enlightened, like I have some unique perspective on the world. In reality, the only credit I deserve is for my choice of reading material. Vonnegut so effectively carries his reader to a different point from which to view the world that you barely notice that you didn't get there yourself. What could be a greater testament to an author than that?
All of Vonnegut's novels accomplish the same feat, but this one does it more, or better. As this book wound down, I became sad - not because I didn't want the story to end, but because I didn't want the feeling of seeing the world from a unique place to end. Fortunately, once you put the book down, a lot of that new perspective stays with you.
This is a great book for anyone who wants to see the world in ways they haven't before. Very highly recommended.
Rated by buyers -
The Irish elk died out a few millenia ago. Its antlers spanned three meters making it impossible for an Irish Elk to enter a forest to eat or escape a predator. Unfortunately, big antlers were a real turn on for female Irish elks so that sexual selection favoured males with larger antlers, which then grew and grew generation after generation until they became such a burden they drove the Irish elk to extinction.
Kurt Vonnegut's tongue-in-cheek premise is that, from evolution's point of view, our big brains are as useless and dangerous to the human race as antlers were to the Irish elk.
Our big brains help us attract mates and earn a living but they are a expensive drain on our resources: a third of the oxygen we breathe and of the calories we burn are used by the grey matter within our skull. Further, big brains make us do really stupid things (again from the point of view of the human race) like inventing nuclear bombs and other ways of killing ourselves off. One million years from now, in the novel, the members of human race have smaller brains and according to Vonnegut are all the happier for it.
The premise and development are interesting and Vonnegut really gets what evolution is all about and he understands how random contingency has a deep effect on history.
I can't quite agree with Vonnegut's conclusion that we would be better off without our big brains. It's not that he missed something in his analysis of the disadvantages of big brains, but rather without these brains we wouldn't be humans. Our fictional descendants a million years from now may be "happier" than we are, but they aren't human anymore, so who cares?
A fascinating read and an excellent illustration of how contingency and randomness shape history.
Vincent Poirier, Tokyo
Rated by buyers 
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This was the very first Vonnegut book I've ever read.
The story is told from a very strangle angle, which sort of releases bits of plot information in passing, slowly, like pieces of a puzzle until the whole picture comes into focus. I must admit, for the very first 150 pages or so, I couldn't stand this style. It just seemed very unnatural and awkward.
However, Vonnegut's biting social commentary and obvious metaphors were like nuggets of gold sprinkled throughout.
When the story was complete, I was impressed by his ability to construct it in such a complex manner. The ending left a bit to be desired and seemed disorganized.
3/5, but I will certainly read more Vonnegut books from this point forward.
Rated by buyers -
it's very well written, and pretty interesting
but it is an odd plot
i liked it, but i wouldn't read it twice
Rated by buyers 
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It was a challenge to stay interested. the very first two thirds of the book were all over the place. one chapter he would build on characters/plot and the subsequent he would talk about something completely irrelevant to the story. i've read many of his other books and they all were amazing. this one didn't feel like a story to me.
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