The Guardian’s review, by M John Harrison suggests Look at the Birdie contains “many of the characteristics we associate with Vonnegut the novelist”, observing that the short story collection “is in itself a story, about an author pursuing a market he wasn't interested in”. While Harrison praises the collection, overall, he does admit that these early Vonnegut stories lack some of the absurdity of the author’s novels, such as Cat’s Cradle and Player Piano.
Similarly, Jessica Schneider observes (rightly or wrongly) that “Galapagos is arguably the last good novel Kurt Vonnegut wrote”, the reviewer ranks the book below some of the author’s other work, including Slaughterhouse-Five. It seems that when reviewing Vonnegut’s work, it’s difficult to get away from comparing it to seminal novels like Slaughterhouse-Five, but Schneider does take the time to highlight some of the enjoyable aspects of Galapagos. In particular, Schneider praises “how innovative Vonnegut is when it comes to story-telling structure”, before going on to note that it’s difficult to summarise novels by the author.
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