Player Piano
by Kurt Vonnegut
341 pages
Dial Press Trade Paperback, September 2006
fiction
DNF
My Rating: DNF
"Ilium, New York, is divided into three parts."
Review: I'm learning fairly early on in life to avoid certain "classic" authors earliest writings. It is true when they say you get better with practice. I've been discovering that with several authors first books that haven't been as good as their more recent bestsellers. Player Piano is no exception. But I had to attempt to read it, you see, because I have a slight OCD problem when it comes to books. That problem is, when I discover an author whose book I want to read, I do research on that author. If it's a book in a series and there are several books before the one I want to read, then I must read those first. Or in the case of Vonnegut here, I had only intended on reading Mother Night, which is the third novel he wrote. However, when I discovered just how popular he is as a writer I had to buy and read the two books before Mother Night. Hence my reading this book.
Unfortunately, I give a book 150 pages before I decide whether or not it's worth continuing. I probably give books more pages to succeed or fail than the average reader would, but if I want to give some kind of review on the book, even if I don't finish it, I figure getting close to halfway through an average 300 page book should suffice.
From what I read so far, this is a story which takes place in the very distant future. Books like this tend to take liberties and go off the rails of reality more than usual. The new "government" has taken in upon themselves to help humanity by removing their boring, everyday, tasks completely. Those menial 9 - 5 jobs have all been replaced by machines. Those who are determined to be intelligent in certain fields are sent off to jobs that can use their minds wisely. Those that would just end up at a job where they'd hate it every day and never amount to much are given money to live on and that's about it. How smart of the new people in power to come up with such an idea. They feel they're doing the less intelligent person a favor by letting them live without work or any real purpose. Only to discover, after the damage has already been done, that those without purpose actually have a reason for living beyond doing nothing. A bit of satisfaction comes from working every day. Even if mistakes are made to slow production down a bit.
The main characters are two men who hold fairly high positions within the new ruling class. One if Proteus who has a wife constantly nagging him to get a better station in life where he can make more money for her to spend and show off. While the other, Finnerty, is an unclean, yet highly intelligent man, single, who has discovered he wants to live among and help the average man that machines have done away with.
The "player piano" aspect comes in by coincidence at a pub located in Homestead, where all those without work live. How it influences one thing or another, or if it's ever more than just an inanimate object but a cause for action, I do not know. I stopped reading after Proteus is deciding inwardly whether or not to join in on Finnerty's unspoken of plans for revolution, let things stay the way they are, or do what his wife wants and continue up the ladder of success.
Summary: Kurt Vonnegut’s first novel spins the chilling tale of engineer Paul Proteus, who must find a way to live in a world dominated by a supercomputer and run completely by machines. Paul’s rebellion is vintage Vonnegut—wildly funny, deadly serious, and terrifyingly close to reality.
To learn more about Kurt Vonnegut visit his site here.
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