Kurt Vonnegut's
Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut is a bold writer in many senses and with Cat's cradle he takes a giant calculated leap that divides opinion right through the middle. Cat's cradle is book that starts with a narrator that somewhat mysteriously wants to be called Jonah and who sets out to write a story about the day the Hiroshima Atom Bomb exploded. He goes about prying into the personal life and habits of one Dr. Felix Hoenikker and his somewhat deranged children. Vonnegut is especially masterful at misdirection and the art of making the reader resign himself to predictable future while vengefully building up one of the greatest satirical books of the century.
As the Investigation into the life of Dr. Hoenikker progresses, from his lifestyle to his children, Angela, Newt and Frank, Jonah slowly tells of Bokononism: A religion that he confesses to have joined in the course of writing the book. Bokonon, the creator of this religion seems to be a genius nut job with really interesting doctrines, one of which include, everything in this book(The Book of Bokonon) are lies, thus taking a direct dig on religion as well.
Jonah's karass, or the group of people with whom his life seems inexplicably intertwined, leads him to the whacky fictitious island nation of San Lorenzo, also called the Banana Republic. Through a dialogue with Jonah's fellow passengers, Mr. Vonnegut directs his satire toward the collective mentality of America.
It is here on this island that we get the sense that doom is impending, with the slow reveal of what is arguably the book's main plot, Ice Nine.
Disaster soon strikes and here is where the author reveals the diamond that he's been chipping away slowly at. Kurt Vonnegut is fantastic in making an apocalypse, the perpetual nightmare of the human race, seem funny and comic. And as often is not the case, the end truly outshines the rest of the book.
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