Last week, after hearing so much about Kurt Vonnegut, I finally went out and bought a few of his books. The first one I read was the one I'd heard mentioned most often in connection with his name: Slaughterhouse-Five. I liked it a lot — he has very clever and appealing ways of saying interesting, unexpected things.

With Slaughterhouse quickly consumed, I eagerly started the other book I'd bought, Timequake. This book is much more recent, and the difference is astounding. Whereas Slaughterhouse, published in 1972, read like a really creative novel, Timequake (1996) feels like going to a friend's house and getting stuck listening to their grandfather ramble on and on about whatever comes to mind while you smile and nod politely.

Granted, sometimes it's interesting, but there's no discernible theme or point. The narrative just kind of wanders from subject to subject, rarely even offering you any sensible kind of transition or link. It does retain that easily recognizable Vonnegut style, but it just doesn't seem like it has much to say. He tells you about his various siblings, uncles, children, and friends, what they thought or said about things, stories he's read, speeches he's made, jokes he's heard, what he thinks about the Internet, or politicians, or orthography, or World War 2. And interspersed throughout all of these meandering walks down the garden path, there's the slightest trace of a plot about the universe shifting back in time ten years and then proceeding forward again.

It's moderately entertaining to read, just like talking with the elderly can be interesting, but it certainly doesn't catch your attention and leave you waiting eagerly for your next opportunity to come back and read more, as Slaughterhouse did. And obviously, it leads me to wonder if over the 40 or so years he's been writing, he's gradually "lost his edge", and is now no longer trying. He seems to be content to let his pleasing style carry the book, figuring that no matter what he talks about, people will love it.

I guess you can't make an accurate judgement based only on two datapoints. But I know that next time I pick up a Vonnegut book, I'll be looking for some of his older stuff.