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Galapagos (Delta Fiction)

by Kurt Vonnegut

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Info:	Dial Press Trade Paperback (1999), Paperback, 336 pages
Member:	Chris_Genoa
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Showing 1-5 of 18 (next | show all)

Interesting and very funny story, but even though this is a short book, I still felt it was a bit too repeating here and there. (

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Jonoen | Dec 3, 2009 |

One of the greatest books ever written! (

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tro214 | Sep 9, 2009 |

Awesomely weird and a little creepy and definitely competing with Cat's Cradle for my favorite slot out of Kurt Vonnegut's novels. At this point in time this novel is winning because of its out of this world crazy ideas about humankind and the direction we are going in. I think the reason I like this book so much is because of the seal people, but Vonnegut obviously never thought of test tube babies. (

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laurenbethy | Jun 16, 2009 |

http://tamaranth.blogspot.com/2009/06... (

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tamaranth | Jun 8, 2009 |

Like the best science fiction it has so many interesting ideas explored and tantalised through a compelling story line. I wonder about Vonnegut's mental state while writing this, it is just so black and dark, did he try to take the black view of humanity to such an extreme to show it's folly or it's fact? I'm not sure which. Just so right to see the birthplace of evolutionary theory as the deathplace of humanity by that very action. (

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caz4562000 | Apr 10, 2009 |

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Series (with order)

Canonical Title

Galápagos

Original publication date

1985

People/Characters

Important places

Important events

Related movies

Awards and honors

John W. Campbell Memorial Award Finalist (1986)

New York Times bestseller (Fiction, 1985)

Epigraph

In spite of everything, I still believe people are really good at heart.

Anne Frank (1929-1945)

Dedication

In memory of Hillis L. Lowie (1903-1982)

First words

The thing was:
One million years ago, back in A.D. 1986, Guayaquil was the chief seaport of the little South American democracy of Ecuador, whose capital was Quito, high in the Andes Mountains.

Quotations

Mary had also taught that the human brain was the most admirable survival device yet produced by evolution. But now her own big brain was urging her to take the polyethylene garment bag from around a red evening dress in her closet in Guayaquil, and to wrap it around her head, thus depriving her cells of oxygen.

"I'll tell you what the human soul is, Mary," he whispered, his eyes closed. "Animals don't have one. It's the part of you that knows when your brain isn't working right. I always knew, Mary. There wasn't anything I could do about it, but I always knew."

As for the meaning of the courtship dance of the blue-footed boobies: The birds are huge molecules with bright blue feet and have no choice in the matter. By their very nature, they have to dance exactly like that.
Human beings used to be molecules which could do many, many different sorts of dances, or decline to dance at all - as they pleased. My mother could do the waltz, the tango, the rumba, the Charleston, the Lindy Hop, the jitterbug, the Watusi, and the twist. Father refused to do any dances, as was his privilege.

Last words

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Disambiguation notice

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▾References

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Wikipedia in English (2)

Galápagos (novel)

List of works by Kurt Vonnegut

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Book description

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Amazon.com Product Description (ISBN 0385333870, Paperback)

“Beautiful…provocative, arresting reading.”–USA Today

KURT VONNEGUT is a master of contemporary American literature. His black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination 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

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:10 -0400)

(see all 2 descriptions)

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