Chris W. reviewed on
Eugene Debs Hartke -- Vietnam Vet and career officer, teacher, philanderer, and now... prisoner. "Hocus Pocus" tells his story in small snatches of thoughts he scribbles on whatever comes to hand. He's accused of masterminding the largest mass prison breakout in US history. (As a side project to these notes, he's assembling two lists: all the women he's loved and all the people he's killed.)
This is classic Vonnegut. His black humor is in full force as Hartke comments on war, love, politics, the prison system, insanity, education, misinformation, and the "ruling class" in America.
For longtime Vonnegut readers, we even get to revisit a story by his fictional alter-ego, Kilgore Trout. Hartke finds deep meaning in "The Protocols of the Elders of Tralfamadore" which he finds in a copy of "Black Garter" magazine.
Maybe the last sentence of the book sums up its viewpoint best: "Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe."
This is classic Vonnegut. His black humor is in full force as Hartke comments on war, love, politics, the prison system, insanity, education, misinformation, and the "ruling class" in America.
For longtime Vonnegut readers, we even get to revisit a story by his fictional alter-ego, Kilgore Trout. Hartke finds deep meaning in "The Protocols of the Elders of Tralfamadore" which he finds in a copy of "Black Garter" magazine.
Maybe the last sentence of the book sums up its viewpoint best: "Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the Universe."
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