About book We Are What We Pretend To Be: The First And Last Works (2012)
I think this book makes a nice addition for any fan. Readers often don't get to see an author's early works, and just like the unfinished works, there's kind of a reason for that :-D The most valuable part of the book is the touching introduction by Vonnegut's daughter. The first part of the book is an early work called "Basic Training" that really doesn't go anywhere. It's the story of a young man who comes to live at a relative's farm, has a brief adventure when one of the farm hands goes nuts, and kind of ends there. There's no real feeling or purpose to the book although the characters are richly written. The second half of the book is an unfinished work made of six chapters called "If God Were Alive Today", about a comic named Gil Berman. This work literally does not go anywhere, as it seems to stop right in the middle of the final chapter. Both pieces really feel unfinished and in need of editing. I am thankful though that no one tried to finish "If God Were Alive Today" though. It seems more like an exercise in writing and getting the basic plot down. I should know better than to read posthumously published work by pretty much anyone, but Vonnegut should certainly be off-limits. This is his first work and his last work, and neither of them are strong. The story at the beginning reminds me of the stories he published for money in Welcome to the Monkey House. The chapters of the novella at the end remind me of his later novels, which mainly just repeat what he said or wrote decades earlier. I had hoped these would be interesting in an historical sense, but they're not even that. Very disappointing.
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I thought the first story was pretty terrific. The second one was something else.
—Kennedy
Vonnegut is always witty and entertaining. No exception here.
—Emmy
