I've been reading a lot of Vonnegut recently, and I've noticed some interesting stuff. Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater, and Cat's Cradle are similar to a novel in format, though Slaughterhouse Five is of course all "out of order" and in two of the three, Vonnegut breaks the fourth wall more than a few times.
On the other hand, Timequake is this weird combination of stream of consciousness, real life, and fiction, so you have no idea what the heck's going on. Semi-similarly, Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons (a collection of Vonnegut's talks and articles) go over all sorts of different topics, with little rhyme or reason (at least to my mind), feeling kind of stream of conscious-y as well.
Interestingly, looking at the dates the novels were published, it shakes out as follows:
- Cat's Cradle - 1963
- God Bless You Mr. Rosewater - 1965
- Slaughterhouse Five - 1969
- Wampeters, Foma, and Granfalloons - 1974
- Timequake - 1997
That is, the later the book was published, the less like a normal novel the book is. Does this hold true for the rest of Vonnegut's books? Was this intentional? Why did this happen?
