Ratings42
Average rating3.9
Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s shorter works. Originally printed in publications as diverse as The Magazine of Fantasy and Science Fiction and The Atlantic Monthly, these superb stories share Vonnegut’s audacious sense of humor and extraordinary range of creative vision.
Includes the following stories:
“Where I Live”
“Harrison Bergeron”
“Who Am I This Time?”
“Welcome to the Monkey House”
“Long Walk to Forever”
“The Foster Portfolio”
“Miss Temptation”
“All the King’s Horses”
“Tom Edison’s Shaggy Dog”
“New Dictionary”
“Next Door”
“More Stately Mansions”
“The Hyannis Port Story”
“D.P.”
“Report on the Barnhouse Effect”
“The Euphio Question”
“Go Back to Your Precious Wife and Son”
“Deer in the Works”
“The Lie”
“Unready to Wear”
“The Kid Nobody Could Handle”
“The Manned Missiles”
“Epicac”
“Adam”
“Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow”
From randomhouse.com
Reviews with the most likes.
A great short story collection, especially for Vonnegut fans. My favorites: “Welcome to the monkey house”, “More stately mansions”, “Report on the Barnhouse Effect”, “The euphio question”, “The manned missiles”, and “Epicac”.
I picked this up specifically for “Harrison Bergeron,” a dystopian future story where “equality” is forced on everyone by law. Any advantages citizens have, intelligence, strength, beauty, must be handicapped artificially. Interesting concept and absurdly wicked the way the plot goes down.
Other stories in the collection I enjoyed were “Report on the Barnhouse Effect,” “The Euphio Question,” and “Deer in the Works,” all of which were dark and funny at the same time and gave me plenty to think about.
The title story was a real doozy, another dystopian future, in which the world is overpopulated so people take a pill to kill all sexual desire, instead of the more expected methods of contraception.
“If you go back through history you'll find that the people who have been most eager to rule, to make the laws, to enforce the laws and to tell everybody exactly how God Almighty wants things here on Earth — those people have forgiven themselves and their friends for anything and everything. But they have been absolutely disgusted and terrified by the natural sexuality of common men and women.”
Electric Dreams