Kurt Vonnegut's "You Are What You Pretend To Be" Book Review

I picked this book up, knowing that this is about the third book by one of my favorite authors since he died early in 2007.

The thought that he is starting to have more recent publishes since his death than he had for many years prior to his death did not escape me, truth be told. It was a little like Nirvana following Kurt Cobain's suicide.

In any case, this particularly is an interesting book because it features both early and late works. Specifically, it has two parts.

The first story, or novella, is called "Basic Training", and dates from around 1950, a couple of years before Vonnegut's first book, Player Piano, was published.

The second is If God Were Alive Today, and was the last thing that Vonnegut was working on before he died. It was not completed, although I remember him actually mentioning it in February of 2006, at one of his last public appearances, at the Connecticut Forum in Hartford.

***Spoiler Alert***

Basic Training has the early writing style that fans of Vonnegut will already be familiar with. it is clearly from a different time, specifically, the post-war era. Haley has been sent to a farm following the death of his mother, and there he falls in love with Hope, a beautiful farmhand girl. But the man in charge, the General, is a very strict, no nonsense disciplinarian that focuses on work, work, work, all of the time.

There are other workers present, such as the unstable Mr. Banghart. Inevitably, tensions arise, and after the General takes away Haley's hopes of a career in music, Haley finds himself resenting the General, where before there had been mostly fascination. But after an incident in which the General's most prized possession is destroyed, Haley runs away from the farm with Mr. Banghart, and they travel to Chicago. Haley is eventually caught and returned to the farm, while Mr. Banghart, who has killed a man in a heated exchange while in Chicago, has vowed revenge on the General.

Eventually, of course, all of the characters come together in one final clash that actually surprises and humbles all parties for it's surprise outcome (that much I'm not going to reveal here).

If God Were Alive Today is the last, unfinished, and previously unpublished, work that Vonnegut was writing towards the end of his life. It is about a comedian, Gil Berman, who clearly shares many of Kurt Vonnegut's world views (come to think of it, they have much the same sense of humor, too).

We learn not only more about the man's unique perspective, always dressed in humor, as well as his troubled, very mysterious background, which slowly but surely, sheds light on some of his most peculiar characteristics, such as his avowed celibacy.

Berman has had a troubled childhood, as well as issues with substance abuse, and we find that his greatest period of creativity came while he was doing those substances. He fears losing his ideas, although perhaps fear is not exactly the best way of describing it. In fact, Berman seems to be almost the epitome of the laissez-faire approach to life, almost stumbling on his own good fortune by making it big as a comedian by accident.

There is much of Vonnegut's trademark humor in the latter story, and throughout the book, fans will recognize Vonnegut's wisdom and kind hearted humanity and sense of simple decency. Again, Basic Training is more or less a throwback to Vonnegut's earlier works, and it was clearly done in an earlier style than If God Were Alive Today, which is a busy work that rarely pauses for breath, and perhaps is a reflection of the rather crazy and busy pace of the world. You can tell, reading the latter novella, that this is the same author of works like Dead-Eye Dick and Breakfast of Champions.

Ultimately, I would recommend this book obviously to Vonnegut fans, such as myself. As for others, Basic Training is a far more straightforward story than If God Were Alive Today, although the latter has some pearls of uniquely Vonnegut wisdom and perspective on the world today, which may make it the more attractive of the two novellas in this book for those more detached from Vonnegut's writing.

But, as I surely have stated here before, I have never read a bad Kurt Vonnegut book, and this one sure is no exception, either. I enjoyed it immensely, relishing the opportunity to read some "new" Vonnegut material, and you should, too!