I’m not really sure what to say about “Slapstick” by Kurt Vonnegut. I reread the book last week. I had read it once before. It is a terribly entertaining book and I would recommend it to people.

My loss of words is not because I am lacking an opinion on the novel. I think that the novel is bizarre and wonderful and well written. I’m at a loss for words because how can you describe such a nut ball of a book?

The book generally takes place in the future. A future where disease has killed most of the population and the Chinese have become so technologically advanced that they have shrunk themselves down to microscopic sizes and left the rest of us on Earth after moving to Mars. It is a book about a man who is a genius when near his twin, through their combined psychic efforts. A book with a plan to end American loneliness by giving everyone new families. Oh, and gravity is no longer consistent. There are heavy and light Earth days.

It is a crazy book that is dark, witty, humorous, and engaging. The story is rather abstract and not very deep in and of itself, but it is full of interesting ideas and segways.

It is interesting that in the Prologue, Vonnegut says “This is the closest I will ever come to writing an autobiography. I have called it “Slapstick” because it is grotesque, situational poetry — like the slapstick film comedies, especially those of Laurel and Hardy, of long ago. It is about what life feels like to me.”

If this book is what life feels like to Vonnegut, he would make a very interesting or terrible dinner guest. It would be a hard call.