Status
Available
Call number
Collection
Publication
Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence (1982), Edition: First Edition, Hardcover, 240 pages
Description
Amid the horrors of a double murder and a city's annihilation by a neutron bomb, Rudy Waltz, a.k.a. Deadeye Dick, takes the reader on a zany search for absolution and happiness.
User reviews
LibraryThing member gbill
I’m a big fan of Kurt Vonnegut, and the fact that he was so clear-eyed in critiquing America in 1982, when nationalism was on the rise, makes me admire him all the more. Here he remarks on so many things: racism and Nazi sympathies in America, the callousness of the wealthy, the drug industry,
Unfortunately, the story constructed in Deadeye Dick falters after a strong start, never really developing into the type of cohesive narrative that’s engaging. The recipes interspersed through the narrative seemed random. The device of shifting the narrative to a screenplay was overdone. There are little bits of information tacked on in places that seem purposeless, and could have used editing. At times I felt like he had just lost his way and gone off the rails, but the examples I thought about citing are hard to understand without context.
There are enough nuggets of brilliance to make this worth reading, but it could have used more vision in its plot, and ended up being just so-so for me.
These quotes are brilliant though:
On colonialism:
“…Haitian refugees should follow the precedent set by white people and simply discover Florida or Virginia or Massachusetts or whatever. They could come ashore, and start converting people to voodooism. It’s a widely accepted principle…that you can claim a piece of land which has been inhabited for tens of thousands of years, if only you will repeat this mantra endlessly: ‘We discovered it, we discovered it, we discovered it…’”
On humanity:
“You want to know something? We are still in the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages – they haven’t ended yet.”
From the husband of a victim of gun violence:
“My wife has been killed by a machine which should never have come into the hands of any human being. It is called a firearm. It makes the blackest of all human wishes come true at once, at a distance: that something die.
There is evil for you.
We cannot get rid of mankind’s fleetingly wicked wishes. We can get rid of the machines that make them come true.
I give you a holy word: DISARM.”
On life, and America:
“If a person survives an ordinary span of sixty years or more, there is every chance that his or her life as a shapely story has ended, and all that remains to be experienced is epilogue. Life is not over, but the story is. Some people, of course, find inhabiting an epilogue so uncongenial that they commit suicide. Ernest Hemingway comes to mind. … This could be true of nations, too. Nations might think of themselves as stories, and the stories end, but life goes on. Maybe my own country’s life as a story ended after the Second World War, when it was the richest and most powerful nation on earth, when it was going to ensure peace and justice everywhere, since it alone had the atom bomb.”
On meaninglessness:
“The corpse was a mediocrity who had broken down after a while. The mourners were mediocrities who would break down after a while. … The planet itself was breaking down. It was going to blow itself up sooner or later anyway, if it didn’t poison itself first. … There in the back of the church, I daydreamed a theory of what life was all about. I told myself that Mother and Felix and the Reverend Harrell and Dwayne Hoover and so on were cells in what was supposed to be one great big animal. There was no reason to take us seriously as individuals. Celia in her casket there, all shot through with Drano and amphetamine, might have been a dead cell sloughed off by a pancreas the size of the Milky Way.”
On mommy issues:
“I have a tendency, anyway, to swoon secretly in the presence of nurturing women, since my own mother was such a cold and aggressively helpless old bat.”
And finally, this classic:
“To be is to do” – Socrates
“To do is to be” – Jean-Paul Sartre
“Do be do be do” – Frank Sinatra
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and the development of the horrifying neutron bomb for starters (sardonically quipping about the latter, “Since all the property is undamaged, has the world lost anything it loved?”). He also makes points about conspiracy theories, American paranoia, and the gun culture of the NRA (and boy, he had seen nothing yet). As the quotes below attest to, when he makes a point that resonates, it’s like fire on the page.Unfortunately, the story constructed in Deadeye Dick falters after a strong start, never really developing into the type of cohesive narrative that’s engaging. The recipes interspersed through the narrative seemed random. The device of shifting the narrative to a screenplay was overdone. There are little bits of information tacked on in places that seem purposeless, and could have used editing. At times I felt like he had just lost his way and gone off the rails, but the examples I thought about citing are hard to understand without context.
There are enough nuggets of brilliance to make this worth reading, but it could have used more vision in its plot, and ended up being just so-so for me.
These quotes are brilliant though:
On colonialism:
“…Haitian refugees should follow the precedent set by white people and simply discover Florida or Virginia or Massachusetts or whatever. They could come ashore, and start converting people to voodooism. It’s a widely accepted principle…that you can claim a piece of land which has been inhabited for tens of thousands of years, if only you will repeat this mantra endlessly: ‘We discovered it, we discovered it, we discovered it…’”
On humanity:
“You want to know something? We are still in the Dark Ages. The Dark Ages – they haven’t ended yet.”
From the husband of a victim of gun violence:
“My wife has been killed by a machine which should never have come into the hands of any human being. It is called a firearm. It makes the blackest of all human wishes come true at once, at a distance: that something die.
There is evil for you.
We cannot get rid of mankind’s fleetingly wicked wishes. We can get rid of the machines that make them come true.
I give you a holy word: DISARM.”
On life, and America:
“If a person survives an ordinary span of sixty years or more, there is every chance that his or her life as a shapely story has ended, and all that remains to be experienced is epilogue. Life is not over, but the story is. Some people, of course, find inhabiting an epilogue so uncongenial that they commit suicide. Ernest Hemingway comes to mind. … This could be true of nations, too. Nations might think of themselves as stories, and the stories end, but life goes on. Maybe my own country’s life as a story ended after the Second World War, when it was the richest and most powerful nation on earth, when it was going to ensure peace and justice everywhere, since it alone had the atom bomb.”
On meaninglessness:
“The corpse was a mediocrity who had broken down after a while. The mourners were mediocrities who would break down after a while. … The planet itself was breaking down. It was going to blow itself up sooner or later anyway, if it didn’t poison itself first. … There in the back of the church, I daydreamed a theory of what life was all about. I told myself that Mother and Felix and the Reverend Harrell and Dwayne Hoover and so on were cells in what was supposed to be one great big animal. There was no reason to take us seriously as individuals. Celia in her casket there, all shot through with Drano and amphetamine, might have been a dead cell sloughed off by a pancreas the size of the Milky Way.”
On mommy issues:
“I have a tendency, anyway, to swoon secretly in the presence of nurturing women, since my own mother was such a cold and aggressively helpless old bat.”
And finally, this classic:
“To be is to do” – Socrates
“To do is to be” – Jean-Paul Sartre
“Do be do be do” – Frank Sinatra
Show Less
LibraryThing member bibleblaster
One of the Vonneguts I missed when it came out. Not his best, but that's okay with me. I like his style and there are always little gems scattered throughout. And he has a special way of riding the line between humor and heartbreak, which is where so much of real life happens.
LibraryThing member joeltallman
The best Vonnegut? Not for me. But even second tier Vonnegut is better than most things out there.
LibraryThing member michellegarrette
This was my first foray into Vonnegut's work, and it won't be my last. His humor is not over the top, but it's not so subtle that you feel silly if you don't get it. I really enjoyed the meandering nature of the story, it gave me the feeling that Rudy probably had about his life: that there really
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was no rhyme or reason, he was just drifting along. Show Less
LibraryThing member fuzzy_patters
It had plenty of the dark humor, wit, and satire that you come to expect from Vonnegut. It didn't really break any new ground. We have a society that places a lot of importance on war, violence, and weapons. This isn't anything too shocking. It was funny. I give it four stars for being
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well-written, but I can't give it that fifth star because it wasn't a book that will be that memorable for me. Show Less
LibraryThing member verenka
Another example why I don't understand German translations of book and film titles. Although Rudy is frequently referred to as Deadeye Dick throughout the book they somehow thought it necessary to change the title.
Like other books by Kurt Vonnegut, it looks like the author has a pessimistic view on
I also love the unconventional little phrases that are so typical for Vonnegut. In this book it was him describing being born as a peephole opening.
Like other books by Kurt Vonnegut, it looks like the author has a pessimistic view on
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the future of American society and the world as a whole. Some of the characters from Deadeye Dick also appear in Breakfast of Champions, one of my favourite books by him. Another parallel is the environmental pollution and destruction present in both books. Although in this book this dark premonition on ecological destruction clearly escalates with the detonation of the neutron bomb over Midland City. Aside from the bizarr story I also liked how some parts were written as a theatre scene (somehow reminden me of Tennesse Williams, don't know why) and the recipes strewn in for good measure.I also love the unconventional little phrases that are so typical for Vonnegut. In this book it was him describing being born as a peephole opening.
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LibraryThing member DeDeNoel
I always have pretty high expectations for Vonnegut novels. Unfortunately, this one fell far below my 'standards bar'. It wasn't fresh or exciting. Not super funny or witty either. I gave it two stars because it was easy to read and the story was kind of interesting.
LibraryThing member agnesmack
I do love Vonnegut, but I'm starting to feel like I've read enough of him. The redeeming quality of his writing for me is the humor. I don't usually really care much about his plots, and they're often difficult to really follow anyway. But he makes the best tongue in cheek jokes out there.
That
That
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said, I'm starting to feel like he's a one trick pony. Or really, maybe closer to something like a four trick pony. Regardless of the number of his tricks, I am growing a little bored with them. I'm sure I'll keep reading them but I don't really get out of them the same amount of amusement as I used to. Show Less
LibraryThing member BooksForDinner
The death of innocence and a neutron bomb. And accidental childhood manslaughter. 80's era KV.
LibraryThing member ptdilloway
I really enjoyed this book. It seemed like Vonnegut writing his own version of a John Irving novel--all he needed was wrestling and bears mixed into the plot. Rudy, whose nickname is where the title comes from, is someone I could really relate to--except for the double homicide. (Yet.)
LibraryThing member ZacharyFarina
One of Vonnegut's best efforts. Very funny.
LibraryThing member regularguy5mb
Another great Vonnegut read. Equally humorous and tragic.
The poor, unfortunate Waltz family. Nothing ever seems to go right for any of them.
The poor, unfortunate Waltz family. Nothing ever seems to go right for any of them.
LibraryThing member Booktacular
My favorite thing about this book is it reads just like my own inner monologue when I'm telling myself my own story (the concept of which also comes up in this book). And yet is seems so tightly written that the character and the story almost feel like a true memoir at times. Vonnegut seems to know
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the facts of Rudy Waltz's life so well that he calls back to earlier events and references so effortlessly and casually that it seems like it must be real. Show Less
LibraryThing member Stahl-Ricco
A witty, well written book! Poor Rudy - his life forever ruined by the power of a gun. The story is so interesting, and sad, I could hardly put it down! His dad was a good pal of Hitler? Flying a Nazi flag over his good ol' Midland City home? Which gets de-populated by a neutron bomb? Crazy! And
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interspersed in the story are some detailed recipes of Rudy's. Weird, huh? But it works, as only Vonnegut can do! Peepholes opening and closing. Show Less
Language
Original language
English
Original publication date
1982
1984 (1ª ed. italiana)
Physical description
240 p.; 8.3 inches
ISBN
0440017807 / 9780440017806