Title: Bluebeard
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Type: Fiction
Page Count/Review Word Count: 256
Rating: 8/10
Kurt Vonnegut – Bluebeard
This was a pretty interesting book to read, but it was also one that you have to concentrate on – it’s pretty jumpy and disjointed, but it’s also pretty. It’s interesting as well, in that it’s part fiction and part non-fiction – one of the interesting things about Rabo Karabekian is that the army regiment that he was attached to in his early days as an artist, which was responsible for using their artistic talents to mislead the enemy, really did exist, and they really did successfully trick Axis leaders into believing entire regiments where in places where they weren’t, and vice versa.
It’s cool, because the majority of the book actually deals with Karabekian’s later life – it’s essentially his autobiography about his involvement with the arts, except that whilst some of the characters are real, others aren’t, and it isn’t a direct representation of historical events. If anything, it’s a parody, and a well-written one at that, and there are plenty of factors to the story line that keep you turning page after page after page.
That said, of the two Kurt Vonnegut books that I’ve read (the other being God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater), this is the weaker of the two, and whilst I am glad that I read it, I’m already convinced that there are better introductions to Vonnegut’s work. But if you’ve read at least one of his books before, you’ll enjoy reading this just as much.
Kurt Vonnegut
