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Hocus Pocus
Hocus Pocus
Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Eugene Debs Hartke (named after the famous early 20th century Socialist working class leader) describes an odyssey from college professor to prison inmate to prison warden back again to prisoner in another of Vonnegut's bitter satirical explorations of how and where (and why) the American dream begins to die. Employing his characteristic narrati...  more »
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ISBN-13: 9781511323765
ISBN-10: 1511323760
Publication Date: 8/4/2015
Edition: Unabridged
Rating:
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0 stars, based on 0 rating
Publisher: Audible Studios on Brilliance Audio
Book Type: Audio CD
Other Versions: Paperback, Hardcover, Audio Cassette
Members Wishing: 0
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Top Member Book Reviews

reviewed Hocus Pocus on
Helpful Score: 3
I had to read this for American Lit. last semester, and enjoyed it very much. It is easy to read but at the same time you have to pay attention to what is going on. The way the novel is pieced together is different, and it makes it all the more interesting. I highly recommend this book, and I can't wait to read more of his books, and I also want to try reading his son's books also.
reviewed Hocus Pocus on + 1568 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This book begins with an Editor's Note: 'The author of this book did not have access to writing paper of uniform size and quality. He wrote in a library housing some eight hundred thousand volumes of interest to no one else. Most had never been read and probably never would be read, so there was nothing to stop him from tearing out their blank endpapers for stationery. This he did not do. Why he did not do this is not known. Whatever the reason, he wrote this book in pencil on everything from brown wrapping paper to the backs of business cards. The unconventional lines separating passages within chapters indicate where one scrap ended and the next began. The shorter the passage, the smaller the scrap....'
OK, now you've got the idea! This is NOT the average novel. I'm not entirely sure that Kurt Vonnegut inhabits exactly the same world the rest of us do, and he surely doesn't look at the world from the same direction.
reviewed Hocus Pocus on + 20 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
Social inequalities with a humorous twist!
joan13 avatar reviewed Hocus Pocus on + 47 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 2
This book is classic Vonnegut sarcastic humor. I loved it! Dark, intellectual and witty. The main character is a vietnam vet, who also teaches at a university for learning challenged students of wealthy elite parents. There is plenty of infidelity. There is a prison, inmates. Social commentary. Read it-you will laugh.
reviewed Hocus Pocus on + 160 more book reviews
Helpful Score: 1
I love Vonnegut's sharp-toothed satire on americans and humans in general. I highly recommend that you check him out!
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ndaynan avatar reviewed Hocus Pocus on + 6 more book reviews
Difficult to read not in chronological order, but entertaining once you get the format down.
dnhowarth avatar reviewed Hocus Pocus on + 174 more book reviews
This was just about his last book to publish, by which time he had generally lost hold of an ability to present his absurdist twist to reality. Couldn't pass the 40-pp assay. Needs a home with a new KV convert.
reviewed Hocus Pocus on + 4 more book reviews
Classic Vonnegut. Great read.
reviewed Hocus Pocus on + 160 more book reviews
I love Kurt Vonnegut!!

"Sharp-toothed satire...absurd humor." - San Francisco Chronicle

I highly recommend Hocus Pocus and all Vonnegut books for that matter!!
reviewed Hocus Pocus on + 74 more book reviews
"I see no harm in telling young people to prepare for failure rather than success, since failure is the main thing that is going to happen to them," writes main character Eugene Debs Hartke. And not just personal failure, but large-scale continental collapse. The American economy is dominated by Japan, colleges are turned into prisons, and Swedes are mining US forests with Mexican labor. Another Vonnegut hand-slap to America for failing to live up to his expectations for it. But he's a brilliant writer and, again in this book, someone you suspect is deeply concerned about others.


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