I am an optimist. One might assume that is a natural state as is being a pessimist. And it likely is for many people, but for me it is a choice. I have days like everyone when the world seems terrible and I dislike people, but I don’t choose to engage in those feelings or allow them to engage with me. I push back as hard as I can and it recedes. I know that Kurt Vonnegut is a fabulous writer, but it is his unwillingness or inability to do that which makes “Timequake” entirely unappealing to me. But I’ll get to that.

What is the premise of “Timequake” by Kurt Vonnegut

At its core the basic fictional idea of “Timequake” is that because of an entirely unexplained event the consciousness of everyone on earth is thrown back ten years. They are aware of what happened in those ten years and yet cannot change any of the events. This idea, exploring determinism and free will, is an interesting enough one. And there are a few places where it is used effectively. Talking about people who died being aware of their death or someone in prison for a crime they didn’t commit knowing that they would be freed in seven years was interesting. Would it be better or worse to be in prison knowing that you were going to be freed? Not that it would matter, because there was simply nothing that could be done.

Intermixed with this, making the book confusing to read, is the semi-autobiographical part of the story. The story is told as if it is true and the author talks about himself and things that happened to him. I have no way to know what parts of this narrative are true and what parts are made up. Beyond that, even the author describes the book as a sort of stew. There is no real central narrative, few characters that you become attached to and barely a theme. It felt as if the author were simply writing about what was on his mind.

And what seems to be on his mind most of the time is how terrible everything is. If there is a theme in the book, it is that humanity is suicidal and wants to die as he seems to think are most people, though they don’t know it. He estimates in the book that only 17 percent of people have lives that are worth living. Some of this is because of the fictional element of the Timequake that would make people relive bad parts of their lives. But the story seems to ignore that most people would also get to relive good moments too.

What I thought about “Timequake” by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

I can understand why people like books like this. It would almost certainly reveal more through careful study and rereading, and there are ideas scattered throughout that are interesting. I will never be someone who rereads this book and by itself it has largely soured by on Kurt Vonnegut. It is not the writing or even the lack of narrative, though the latter made it hard for me to care about the former.

It is the focus on the dour. The constant discussion of suicide, mistakes, deaths, failings and more. They aren’t interesting, and the focus on them does far more harm that good. The book doesn’t give me the release of emotions that some books can, and it certainly didn’t make me feel better while reading it or after reading it. At most I might be interested in reading about someone else’s thoughts, and since I have read little else by Kurt Vonnegut, I would like to know if it is typical of his writing. Please leave a comment if you can answer that question.