Summer Books #4: Bluebeard
July 3rd, 2007
There’s a spectrum that you can use to classify Kurt Vonnegut’s work, with “Plot Heavy” on one end and “Abstract Musings” on the other. His first novel, Player Piano, would be clearly on the Plot Heavy side, while Bluebeard, one of Vonnegut’s final novels, exists entirely on the opposite side.
And that’s a real shame, because Vonnegut’s best books are, naturally, the works that reside somewhere in the gray area. Cat’s Cradle took a thoroughly abstract and bizarre set of circumstances and created real drama and pathos. Slaughterhouse-Five’s primary concerns were grounded solidly in reality, with the added “unstuck in time” elements providing the abstraction.
Bluebeard, however, cannot bridge the gap. The simultaneous storylines of the old Armenian painter Rabo Karabekian writing his autobiography and the events that took place when he was a young man are flimsy and not particularly engaging. It’s an enjoyable enough read for a Vonnegut junkie who can get by on loads of whimiscal atmosphere, but Bluebeard can’t be classified as essential.
Bluebeard: **/5
Up next: Murakami’s Dance Dance Dance.
Click here for the index of past reviews.
