Kurt Vonnegut: "Look at the Birdie" (book review)

Sometime in my early 20s I became a huge fan of American satirist Kurt Vonnegut.  His dark sense of humour couple with his ability to make keen observations about human nature made for compelling reads, regardless of the genre he chose for any given project.  Breakfast of Champions still ranks among my favorite books of all-time.

From the story of the least famous Watergate conspirator of Jailbird to the struggling Armenian artist in Bluebeard his characters leap from the page into absurd reality, much to the joy of the reader.

However, as much as I enjoy his novels, it's his short stories that I enjoy devouring the most.

Recently we've seen the publication of Look at the Birdie, the second posthumous printing of a Vonnegut work.  The book is a collection of fourteen previously unpublished Vonnegut short stories.  They are culled from the author's early works, before his break though to become a literary giant.

Look at the Birdie is definitely the sound of a writer struggling to find his voice, and you do get glimmers of the author he will become.  "Ed Luby's Key Club" shows a developing knack for intrigue and conspiracy while a tale like "Hall of Mirrors" gives us a glimpse of the science fiction and supernatural elements that Vonnegut would eventually weave into much of his work.

This is definitely not the best of Vonnegut however.  There is a reason why much of this material never got published during his lifetime.  Some stories lack focus others, like "The Good Explainer" have solid build-up culminating in plot pay-offs that are less than satisfactory.

With that all said, Look at the Birdie is an interesting look into the work of an author as he grows.  It is a solid recommendation for any Kurt Vonnegut fan wishing to delving deeper into the man's head.

Kurt Vonnegut's website