A review by ste3ve_b1rd
The Sirens of Titan by Kurt Vonnegut

5.0

I first read this book when I was 13, and it had a profound effect on me at the time. As naive as I was at that age--Vonnegut's simple, accessible "son of the Heartland" prose enabled the facile assimilation of his POV. I was also drawn in by the author's ridiculously fantastic sci-fi scenarios. I bought this hardcover version from a street vendor in the East Village, NYC last year and read it again. This time the effect of "The Sirens of Titan" was stronger and even more depressing. Philosophically, Vonnegut is a Pessimist. The ambiance of "Titans" is light, and yet unmistakably imbued with an intensely tragic core. "Titans" is written with great humour, of which there are many examples (IE "the Martians who attacked Boca Raton"; "Winston Niles Rumfoord's "Pocket History of Mars"; the Beatrice Rumfoord "Galactic Cookbook"; Dr. Frank Minot's "Are Adults Harmoniums?"; "Moon Mist Cigarettes"; "The Church of God the Utterly Indifferent"). All of the novel's characters are unhappy and unable to get what they want from whoever they're trying to relate to. Hence their comic dialogue. "Titans" is also a visually memorable, for example (I'm paraphrasing): "the vivid aquamarine blue harmoniums on the yellow cave walls of Mercury, a planet that sings"; "A dead harmonium is shriveled and orange in the yellow light of the Mercurial caves. A dead harmonium looks like a dried apricot."; and RE Salo the Tralfamadorian--"his skin had the texture and color of an Earthling tangerine". The ending of this book is at once peaceful and heartbreaking. What I learned from this book? Eventually, I discovered that "The Sirens of Titan" were not real--beauty and happiness being illusions.