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Kurt Vonnegut's "Deadeye Dick" -- Anybody read it? (self.books)

submitted ago by DoctorHoenikker

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So I just finished reading Kurt Vonnegut's "Deadeye Dick" (Vonnegut has been my favorite author for the better part of a decade now) and I have to say that it's really the first of his works I've found anything short of phenomenal. Stylistically brilliant, as always, but the story itself doesn't leave much of an impression (which seems utterly impossible, given the subject matter) and the ending was wholly unsatisfying -- to me, at least. It's not like Vonnegut endings are ever truly happy ones, or even particularly pointed when it comes down to it. But this one seemed to lack significance altogether. Anyone else read it? Care to discuss?

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[–]beamish14 1 point2 points ago

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It's definitely among his bleakest works. Ironically, the scene that made me laugh the hardest was the description of a neutron bomb accidentally detonating.

[–]DoctorHoenikker[S] 2 points3 points ago

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It wasn't the bleakness that got me. It was more that it almost seemed pointless. I disagree with the synopsis I keep seeing everywhere that it's "a tale about the loss of innocence" -- I don't think Rudy was particularly innocent to begin with. I think the most you could say about him is that he was a slightly bland human being in his youth, and that didn't change with age.

That said, I honestly enjoyed the book as I was reading it. But when I got to the end, I kept expecting something that never came. Not, like, some sort of shocking plot-twist -- that would be unlike Vonnegut, in my experience -- but something to make the story more worthwhile. For instance, I was convinced that Hippolyte Paul was going to raise the ghost of Eloise Metzger or Otto Waltz or someone significant, and maybe they would say something mundane but vaguely humorous, and it would wrap things up nicely.

The only thing I could think was that the book as a whole was meant to make a point about the story/epilogue bits of life he discusses part way through it. Like that most of us try to force some sort of story out of our uninteresting lives, when in truth most of the happenings are epilogue material. This seems to fit the bill better than anything -- that Rudy's story was the bit leading up to the day that he killed Eloise, or the day his play was produced, and the rest was just epilogue mistaken for something more.

I don't know. I'm just a little disappointed, I guess. :/

EDIT: Spelling. Got worked up, typed too quickly.

[–][deleted] ago

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[deleted]

[–]DoctorHoenikker[S] 2 points3 points ago

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^ ^ ^ THIS.

I think of his personal style as darkly humorous, but also deeply humanistic in this sweet, humbling "silly humans" sort of way. But there were no even remotely likeable characters in this book. In fact, most of them were actively harmful to others.

It probably doesn't help that before this I read Bluebeard. For once, a happy ending, and now this.

EDIT: Actually, I need to thank you for this comment because it prompted me to check what year it was that he attempted suicide (I remembered reading something about it on Wikipedia a while back) and it turns out it was 1984. So it seems to be that maybe the early 80s were just a really rough time for him and that's reflected in his works from that time. But in 1985, he wrote Galapagos. And in 1987, Bluebeard. I feel much better now, as those are both deeply humanistic and the latter actually ends with a man roughly his age feeling, for the first time in his life, truly happy. I'd like to think there's some underlying truth there, because I love the son of a bitch.

[–]DazzlerPlus 0 points1 point ago

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He adored that panther skin

[–]DoctorHoenikker[S] 0 points1 point ago

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Otto Waltz was a riot. I'll grant you that.

[–]Rankojin 0 points1 point ago

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I've read almost all of Vonnegut's work besides a few of his short story collections. I read Deadeye Dick back in high school and it was one of my favorite Vonnegut works (my least favorite being Galapagos). The scene where they finger print his car and then ask why he bought a 4 door was perhaps one of the funniest / saddest combine moments I've ever read.

One of the things that absolutely connected me to the main character was the realization that no one knew his background and he could become anyone he wanted to be. Again, this is all awhile ago so it isn't fresh in my mind. I'm honestly afraid to reread it, as it won't live up to what I remember it to be.