A dystopian novel in the tradition of 1984, We and Brave New World. In a way it's quite funny with modern and yet now seemingly quaint concerns. Vonnegut injects knowing humour and irony into the way the plot develops and characters react to events, and even though it's over fifty years old, the society seems more familiar with its drive for efficiency and corporate unity - more like what has come to pass than that painted by its more famous counterparts. Perhaps a little bit of a curio, as I suppose all novels of this kind are tied up with the anticipated future of a past long gone, but nonetheless a good read. ( )

I am a huge Kurt Vonnegut fan and have read a few of his works, Slaughter-House Five and The Sirens of Titan, and loved them. He is able to create stories that are, interesting, entertaining, and thought provoking. His style of writing rivals that of the best which only makes his works that much better. When given the opportunity to read a free choice novel in my English class and I found out one of the options was another book by Kurt Vonnegut, Player Piano, it was an easy decision.

In Player Piano the main character Paul Proteus is stuck in the middle of a society divided into the rich and well educated and the poor and undereducated. Paul runs a factory in Ilium, New York and he reflects upon the factory and its transition to a modernized and industrialized assembly line that does not require the work of humans because all the machines can run themselves. While reflecting he begins to see the flaws of what society is becoming and joins a group called the Ghost Shirt Society which is an organization that fights against the society to try and reverse what the society is becoming.

Vonnegut, much like Huxley, analyzes the impact industrialization on society through his satirical work Player Piano. He portrays his opinion on how if society does not take action quickly all hope will be lost and humans will no longer play a role in society whatsoever. Player Piano is a dystopia however through the society’s actions the reader can see what can be done to prevent it from happening.

While I did enjoy reading Player Piano it is not my favorite Vonnegut novel. I was not as impressed with his writing in this one, I feel that it was lacking, however this is one of the first novels Vonnegut wrote so it was interesting to see how he evolved as a writer having read The Sirens of Titan and Slaughter-House Five. I would recommend Player Piano but with a warning to not be expecting too much. Don’t get me wrong it is a good book but, in my opinion, not the best of Vonnegut’s works. ( )

If you have read 1984 and Brave New World, but somehow managed to miss this novel - go buy it. ( )

Being an employee is a goddam nightmare job

The first and most anti-capitalist book by Vonnegut! In fact, he started writing it just after quitting being an employee for General Electric, a "goddam nightmare job". ( )

I loved this! While I've read a fair amount of Vonnegut since he appeared on the Daily Show when I was in early high school, nothing of his has connected with me quite like this one. I finally get what all the fuss is about.

It's a true masterpiece--the detail crafted in every single bit of onomatopoeia, the ancillary characters which tell their own stories in their own words, the surprisingly plausible view of the future...all of it indicates the master craft put forth in this novel. I made the mistake of picking it up at a garage sale during finals week, and I've just lost an entire day and a half of paper-writing to this book. I couldn't be more glad I did, though. This book got me fired up about reading again, quite simply. I love it! ( )