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Look at the Birdie: Unpublished Short Fiction |  | Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Publisher: Delacorte Press
List Price: $27.00
Buy New: $15.18
as of 11/21/2009 18:19 CST details
You Save: $11.82 (44%)
New (41) Used (9) from $15.18
Seller: OB1S
Rating:  5 reviews
Sales Rank: 469
Media: Hardcover
Edition: First Edition, First Printing
Pages: 272
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.7 x 1
ISBN: 038534371X
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385343718
ASIN: 038534371X
Publication Date: October 20, 2009
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
Look at the Birdie is a collection of fourteen previously unpublished short stories from one of the most original writers in all of American fiction. In this series of perfectly rendered vignettes, written just as he was starting to find his comic voice, Kurt Vonnegut paints a warm, wise, and funny portrait of life in post—World War II America–a world where squabbling couples, high school geniuses, misfit office workers, and small-town lotharios struggle to adapt to changing technology, moral ambiguity, and unprecedented affluence.
Here are tales both cautionary and hopeful, each brimming with Vonnegut's trademark humor and profound humanism. A family learns the downside of confiding their deepest secrets into a magical invention. A man finds himself in a Kafkaesque world of trouble after he runs afoul of the shady underworld boss who calls the shots in an upstate New York town. A quack psychiatrist turned "murder counselor" concocts a novel new outlet for his paranoid patients. While these stories reflect the anxieties of the postwar era that Vonnegut was so adept at capturing– and provide insight into the development of his early style–collectively, they have a timeless quality that makes them just as relevant today as when they were written. It's impossible to imagine any of these pieces flowing from the pen of another writer; each in its own way is unmistakably, quintessentially Vonnegut.
Featuring a Foreword by author and longtime Vonnegut confidant Sidney Offit and illustrated with Vonnegut' s characteristically insouciant line drawings, Look at the Birdie is an unexpected gift for readers who thought his unique voice had been stilled forever–and serves as a terrific introduction to his short fiction for anyone who has yet to experience his genius.
Read "Hello, Red" and "The Petrified Ants," two of the stories from the collection, as single-story e-books before Look at the Birdie goes on sale. Available wherever e-books are sold.
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| Customer Reviews:
I love this book November 5, 2009
Inna (New York)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I love this book so much, I'm speechless. I feel like a little kid in a candy store. This is such a delight and I cannot stop reading. I don't want to work, I don't want to sleep! I just want to read this book!
I cannot believe it was never published before. What a wonderful surprise for any Vonnegut fan!
 A Treasure October 31, 2009
Gwen Rosewater (Healdsburg, CA)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
What a fabolous thing to get another volume of Vonnegut stories. Despite the fact that they were never published, I am finding the best of them to be better than those gathered in 'Bagombo Snuff Box'. No, these stories aren't in league with the classics of 'Welcome to the Monkey House', but they are solid and they bear the authors unmistakable stamp, and that is plenty.
I would reserve a five star rating for his best work, but this deserves four- no mean feat.
I hope there's more left October 27, 2009
J. Edgar Mihelic (Chicago)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
Much better than the last two bits of material. These are stories from the front end of his climb to becoming the best American writer since Twain. The other stuff I'd heard before but read greedily like a man thirsting for his last breath. While these stories don't equal his best known works, they are worth the time of someone who has idolized the man and his writing. But if that is true, you probably aren't reading this. Give it a whirl, what have you got to lose?
Dont know what to sat October 23, 2009
Gerhard N. Sawall (Hivesland, CA, USA)
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
im not really good at writing reviews, in fact ive never really tried writing one.
All i will say is that im half way through this book and it is amazing. I've been looking for a good book to read for quite some time, i tried huxley, i tries clown girl by drake, i tried easton ellis, but all that stuck was this.
Worthy Addition - Delight for Vonnegut fans! October 21, 2009
javajunki
8 out of 8 found this review helpful
This newly published collection of Kurt Vonnegut short "stories" is a worthy addition to your personal library and a delight for fans - especially those that enjoy reading the full breadth of his writing style. While some of the selections display the quick wit with a twist so common to his more popular works, others border on the bizarre...of course, each has the element of surprise that only Vonnegut does so well.
Contents include:
Confido
FUBAR
Shout About it from the Housetops
A Song for Selma
Hall of Mirrors
The Nice Little People
Hello, Red
Little Drops of Water
The Petrified Ants
The book is hardcover with dustjacket and contains just over 200 pages of pure pleasure reading...the type that makes literature worth the time and effort to slow down, read and reflect upon. Unlike authors of the past, Vonnegut reflects modern society and is often compared to the likes of Twain etc... with an up-to-date appeal that makes it relevant yet refreshing.
Very enjoyable - superb gift idea for Vonnegut fans!
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