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Deadeye Dick

by Kurt Vonnegut

A search for absolution amid catastrophe

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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    Praised by Worcester Sunday Telegram

    Called “a brilliantly unconventional novel” and “a must for all Vonnegut fans.”

AlbakiReads Editorial

A search for absolution amid catastrophe

Rudy Waltz, known as Deadeye Dick, sets out in search of absolution and happiness against a backdrop of personal and public disaster. The publisher’s description names murder, radioactivity and the destruction of a city among the book’s horrors, while framing the novel as satire about innocence, crime and punishment. That combination puts individual responsibility alongside events on a catastrophic scale, raising questions about how people understand guilt and define themselves. Vonnegut’s description of the novel emphasizes humor alongside its darker material, giving this story of disasters a distinctly comic-satirical frame.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in literary fiction with satirical treatment of crime and punishment
  • Readers drawn to stories about guilt, responsibility and the search for absolution
  • Vonnegut readers interested in fiction that combines humor with catastrophic events

Themes

Innocence and its lossGuilt, crime and punishmentAbsolution and happinessPersonal and public disaster

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"The master at his quirky, provocative best."--Cosmopolitan

Deadeye Dick is Kurt Vonnegut's funny, chillingly satirical look at the death of innocence. Amid a true Vonnegutian host of horrors--a double murder, a fatal dose of radioactivity, a decapitation, an annihilation of a city by a neutron bomb--Rudy Waltz, aka Deadeye Dick, takes us along on a zany search for absolution and happiness. Here is a tale of crime and punishment that makes us rethink what we believe . . . and who we say we are.

Praise for Deadeye Dick

"A moving fable . . . Vonnegut, sweet cynic and ugly duckling, continues to write gentle swan songs for our uncivil society."--Playboy

"A brilliantly unconventional novel . . . a must for all Vonnegut fans."--Worcester Sunday Telegram

"Hits the bull's-eye . . . dolefully celebrates the randomness of life, treating private and public disasters with a kind of reckless whimsy. . . . You don't read Kurt Vonnegut for meaning exactly. You read him for the sad-funny attitude of mind, the kind of weirdness that can interpret the world's weirdness."--USA Today

"Vonnegut is beguiling as ever . . . Incredible plot constructions and inventive language continue to leap from his typewriter . . . the humor is natural and inborn; the insight usually purchased by his characters at painfully high cost. Funny how life turns out. Even funnier how Mr. Vonnegut turns life's insanities into funny, profound sense. That takes a master's touch. Mr. Vonnegut still has it."--Kansas City Star

"Playful and imaginative . . . On finishing the novel, the kitchen of your mind is a cleaner and more well-lighted place than it was before."--Houston Chronicle

"Endearing and enchanting . . . a wise and charming book . . . very full of life."--Glamour
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