The Sirens of Titan

"Too much German batball." - Harshul

Ratings

• Josie - 5☆

• Kyra - 3☆

• Elaine - 5☆

• Kristal - 2☆

• Harshul - 3☆

• Harajay - 2☆

• Jalen S. - 2.5☆

• Chelsea - 2.5☆

Thoughts and Discussion

This was our group's first foray into science-fiction, and it was surprisingly quite polarizing!

Josie (who, to set the record straight, alone chose this book club pick) had the honour of kicking off our discussion today. She confidently gave this book 5 stars, which immediately prompted an outcry of disapproval from most of the group. But this high praise was earned as she quite liked Kurt's writing style as well as the book's intriguing themes on free will and religion. On this latter point, she moreover implored the group to "use our brains" and think a little more, and maybe if we did that we'd come to enjoy the book - we'll have to heed this advice next time!

Kyra was next, and gave this book 3 stars before clarifying her rating system to us. We learned that a 3 star book is, simply put, "just a book"; a 2 star rating is for a book that is bad enough to not be finished; a 1 star rating warrants immediate burning of said book. Whether we agree with this schematic or not, we are all just thankful that no copies were harmed for this meeting. Kyra found that the themes of this book didn't play out the way she wanted them to, and really only found the last 30 pages to be enjoyable, especially with the introduction of Salo's character (which is something all of us could agree on).

Elaine then bravely came to Vonnegut's defence, and also gave out a coveted 5 star rating. In general, Elaine is a fan of Kurt's writing and thinks his other books are good, too, with no real explanation for why. She was amused and entertained while reading this pick, and notably described it as a "silly, goofy time".

Personally, I found praise for this book to be misplaced, and I couldn't let that slide. I was next and offered a generous 2 stars for this book. I actually found a number of moments to be moderately funny, and also quite liked the aforementioned themes that were brought up in the latter half of the book. But Vonnegut's style really took me out of the story. In general, I'm not a fan of when a third person narrator speaks to the reader directly to establish points in the book, when the author could've otherwise developed all of these points through their writing - that's kind of lazy. I found the story's progression to be at times chaotic and confusing, and I especially didn't care for a certain plot point involving how Beatrice was "used".

Harshul gave the book 3 stars - he voiced much agreement with points I'd made (thanks buddy), and also contributed some other thoughts. Frankly, he found the book a little too weird and this took him out of the plot, but he did remark that some things landed better once the absurdity faded a bit. On the whole though, these payoffs weren’t often worth it. Importantly as well, he wasn't able to latch onto any character, which he finds most helpful when trying to get invested in a book. The ending was good, but the plot twist (without spoiling anything... the Tralfamadorians) wasn’t needed - the major theme around free will that this plot point was trying to convey was already present throughout the book, but also could've just been explored better in other ways. Also, too much German batball.

Harajay continued on the hate train, giving it 2 stars. He also commented that having a narrator speak about plot points that are somehow supposed to be 'known' to both the narrator and the reader just isn't effective. He felt he read it for the sake of getting to the end of it, and reflected that this was also probably due to the lack of a good protagonist to cling to and root for. That said, he also found some highlights in the book, namely Rumfoord and his church, and one character's ludicrous use of the Bible as a guide to invest and make his fortune (we all got a kick out of this).

Jalen landed on 2.5 stars for this book. He felt as though the author set out to tell the world a message, and then came up with a story and just put words on a page to back this message after the fact - but without any (much needed) editing or revisions. The concepts of free will and the use of religion as a tool are both ideas that he finds to be interesting. That said, he shared that he's enjoying how these are explored and conveyed way better in his current read, God Emperor of Dune (fourth book in the Dune series).

Chelsea brought us home with our last rating, giving out 2.5 stars as well. She also did not feel any attachment to any of the characters, really finding them to be unlikable on the whole. Really found that if this book were written differently, she probably could've enjoyed it more.