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Hocus Pocus [Paperback]

Kurt Vonnegut (Author)
4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
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Book Description

Publication Date: 17 Oct 1991 | ISBN-10: 0099877104 | ISBN-13: 978-0099877103 | Edition: New Ed

'After you have read one of Kurt Vonnegut's gleefully pessimistic novels, his words go on colouring your world for a long time afterwards... not to read him would be to miss out on lessons that need to be learned about the age we live in' Sunday Times

'It is all done with voice. Vonnegut is a master of the first-person, manic-depressive stand-up' Observer

'Although it is set in the near future, Hocus Pocus is the most topical, realistic Vonnegut novel to date, and shows the struggle of an artist a little impatient with allegory and more than a little impatient with his own country' New York Times Book Review

Frequently Bought Together

Hocus Pocus + Timequake + Galapagos
Price For All Three: £19.77

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  • Timequake by Kurt Vonnegut Paperback £6.74
  • Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut Paperback £6.29

Product details

  • Paperback: 288 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage Classics; New Ed edition (17 Oct 1991)
  • Language: English
  • ISBN-10: 0099877104
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099877103
  • Product Dimensions: 12.9 x 1.9 x 19.7 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (14 customer reviews)
  • Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 85,669 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Product Description

Review

"After you have read one of Kurt Vonnegut's gleefully pessimistic novels, his words go on colouring your world for a long time afterwards... not to read him would be to miss out on lessons that need to be learned about the age we live in." (Sunday Times )

"It is all done with voice. Vonnegut is a master of the first-person, manic-depressive stand-up." (Observer )

"Although it is set in the near future, Hocus Pocus is the most topical, realistic Vonnegut novel to date, and shows the struggle of an artist a little impatient with allegory and more than a little impatient with his own country." (New York Times Book Review )

Book Description

Master of post-modern satire, Kurt Vonnegut Jr patterns trajectories of sex, spite, crime and power in this kaleidoscopic novel.
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MY NAME IS Eugene Debs Hartke, and I was born in 1940. Read the first page
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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews
10 of 10 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent book, excellent writer 10 Feb 2008
By A Buyer
Format:Hardcover
I had never even heard of Kurt Vonnegut until being stuck in a car during a road-trip across California with only an LA Times to read - which happened to have a 2-page feature on the author just after he died. A few weeks later I ordered one of his books on the off-chance it might be good, and in the months following then I have been devouring his body of work, and recommending his books to anyone with an interest in reading.

Hocus Pocus is possibly my favourite so far, although in saying that I have not read a bad one yet. As with all Vonnegut's books, this is filled with cynicism, pessimism, tragedy, distrust of authority, brutal honesty and cutting character assinations (of character types if not of real people). Yet for all that, the humour, invention and underlying humanity of the man means this is never a depressing read.
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6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Funny and true 12 Aug 2008
By Pablo K
Format:Paperback
One of Vonnegut's best - up there with Mother Night and (almost) Cat's Cradle. With a wry eye for comedy and an unimpeachable feel for pacing, our hero somehow manages to convey what is both farcical and revolting in the normal state of human affairs. Funny and true.
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3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars Mr. Vonnegut 12 Jun 2010
By electro_cute
Format:Paperback
I discovered Kurt Vonnegut the same year he died. It wasn't through the news of his death but a quote I saw on a website, of all places, that intrigued me.

After that I read Man Without a Country so I wasn't a typical fan reading his work beforehand, I read about the person behind books like Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle. I fell in love with the thoughts, theories and opinions of Kurt Vonnegut and of course fell in love with his work once I began reading it. Kurt Vonnegut was a man who had such imagination and such a view on the world that it's easy to capture his thoughts and look at the world through different eyes.

Hocus Pocus or, What's the Hurry Son? Is set in the near future (the book was published in 1990) and you follow a man and his story on how he became a prisoner across from his old place of work in Tarkington College. Inbetween you are being filled with background information, history and views of the place in which this character lives. Pretty soon you are in a world filled with details on his work, his family, his colleagues, his love and his fear. As always Vonnegut makes sure we get the picture, he's also the first author where I can imagine exactly how the story plays out in my head. His style of writing is magnificent.

It may not be his most famous work but I still think Hocus Pocus or What's the Hurry Son? is a must read for any fan of Kurt Vonnegut. You may even find a character that's came up in previous Vonnegut books.

Blink and you'll miss it but don't miss out on this great read.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews
5.0 out of 5 stars Fantastic
Funny, sad, poignant and thought provoking all wrapped up in one wonderful book. Gives a unique perspective on politics, family, duty and what we (i. Read more
Published 1 month ago by Sumbo Abiola
5.0 out of 5 stars Dark and funny masterpiece
This is the first book I have read by mr Vonnegut and I'm blown away. Dark as the night it had me giggling like a maniac while reading. Read more
Published 5 months ago by Jan Patrik Sahlstrøm
5.0 out of 5 stars Vonnegut at his best.
This Vonnegut book I had somehow missed when it was published in 2003.
It is vintage Vonnegut and it makes one feel the loss caused by his death last year. Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2010 by T. P. Van Meij
4.0 out of 5 stars American society as seen by Vonnegut
Vonnegut's incisive writing never ceases to amaze and entertain me.

Here he is as cynical, bitter and critical as always but one can't help enjoying his funny divergent... Read more
Published on 19 Mar 2008 by Belmiro Vilela
5.0 out of 5 stars A League of its own
This is my 3rd novel from this writer and I have come to the conclusion that Vonnegut's novels are a form onto themselves. Adjectives like good or bad don't apply. Read more
Published on 6 Oct 2007 by F. X. Dessioux
4.0 out of 5 stars Vonnegut writing about his favourite: warfare!
Hocus Pocus is a story told by Proffessor Hartke of Tarkington College Scipio. A colledge for affluent but stupid people. Across the river is a prison run by japanese. Read more
Published on 14 April 2003
2.0 out of 5 stars A Non-Magical Trip to Prison?
Vonnegut has written many works that are justifiably praised, often laced with biting satire and normally an excellent insight into people and their surrounding society. Read more
Published on 27 Nov 2002 by Patrick Shepherd
4.0 out of 5 stars very vonnegutian (vonnaygooshien?)
Hocus Pocus mines a familiar theme for a Vonnegut novel, the absurdity of war, Vietnam in this case, throwing in other prosaic tools of his, such as repetition, a first person... Read more
Published on 1 May 2002
5.0 out of 5 stars Kurt Vonnegut rocks.
This book rocks.
Published on 6 Feb 1999
3.0 out of 5 stars Not that faboulous
I read Hocus Pocus because of the "People who read this aurthor" thing at the bottom of a book by T. Robbins. I picked it up and the intro was enthralling. Read more
Published on 28 Jan 1999
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