Welcome to the Monkey House

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Customer Reviews:

embarassing at times [Posted on 2008-05-15]
I was surprised at how bad some of these are. Definitely not his best. A story like "Who Am I This Time?" is dull, contrived, and when you come down to it, kind of cornball.

Glen Williamson performs two of these stories as a play [Posted on 2008-06-15]
Glen Williamson (Google him) has been performing two of these stories for years as a one-man play: "Who Am I This Time?" and "The Kid Nobody Could Handle."

"Cheers and congratulations again! Your performance Tuesday evening was truly extraordinary. I feel so fortunate to have been there. I called Kurt [Vonnegut] the next morning and raved about you - then wrote him a note and raved some more."
--Sally Forbes, Executive Director, The Beaux Arts Alliance, New York, NY

"It was so good to see your [Vonnegut] show, which I enjoyed enormously. The stories were delightful. There was a thread running through both stories - the oddball characters, and the need for imagination to give them their place in the community. I loved your characterizations, and was bubbling with mirth at the end of the "Romeo and Juliet" piece, as was the rest of the audience."
-- Andrew Floyd
Stroud, England

"I attended [The Kid Nobody Could Handle and Who Am I This Time?] with sixth, seventh, eighth graders from both Waldorf and public schools. The children were captivated. The plots and characters seemed to speak to them profoundly. Glen is a very skilled actor. He brought the characters to life beautifully, fleshing out the unique details and idiosyncrasies of each so that we all felt like we knew them well. He is a flexible, versatile actor able to portray an incredible range of characters. It was powerful and memorable.

You could hear a pin drop in that auditorium...and that's saying something for middle school kids."
-- Jill Wolcott
Lake Champlain Waldorf School
Shelburne, Vermont

You'll never look at the game of chess the same [Posted on 2008-10-16]
Vonnegut's vision of the future in the story "Harrison Bergeron" has haunted me since I first read it in 5th grade. So it's surprising to me that I hadn't read anything else by him until this year. Luckily, many of his other stories in "Welcome to the Monkey House" were just as fascinating or twisted or surreal.

Several of the tales included seemed to be autobiographical, and were often very simple, without much point but with a lot of feeling. One involved a play which he directed when he cast someone from town who nobody would ever think would be able to act and a girl who looked perfect for the role, and the night of the play he gets quite a surprise from both. It was written simply and very fun to read.

Of his fiction, many stories stand out in my memory. There was on that was narrated by a man who could leave his body and inhabit others, and it tells of a war between the people who had this ability and those who did not. Vonnegut boiled down a complex world into just a few pages and was able to convey the perspective perfectly so that I felt as though I knew exactly what it would be like to live outside of my own body.

My absolute favorite involved a chess match where the pieces were real people commanded by a general who was the king piece. Without giving much away, anytime a piece was lost to the other side, the person playing as that piece would be killed. An incredibly intense story, it had my heart beating out of my chest as I tried to force myself not to flip to the end and find out how everything was resolved.

Of course, as with nearly every compilation of short stories I've read, there were a few tales that didn't quite jive with my tastes, but thankfully the writing was still descriptive and colorful and efficient enough that I whizzed through those fairly quickly and was able to get on to the stories I enjoyed more.

One thing I know for sure after reading "Welcome to the Monkey House" is that I'll definitely be reading more Vonnegut in the future.

Good service [Posted on 2008-10-22]
I received my book promptly, however it was missing its front cover, which had not been mentioned in the description. I contacted the seller and they promptly refunded my money. I would have been happier to get a book with a cover, but a prompt refund was a good response from the seller.

Perfect Timing [Posted on 2008-10-27]
I purchased this book as a gift for my husband. It arrived on time, and the book was such a great read, my husband purchased another book from the same author as soon as he finished this one.

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