By
Kurt Vonnegut
I really disliked Timequake at the beginning because
I didn't know what it was. Of course I knew Vonnegut would be satire of some kind, but the cover blurb led me to believe it was more squarely a
science-fiction novel about time travel, which I usually love. But the
book seemed just a horrible amalgamation of non-sequitors hovering between
newspaper blurbs and anecdotes. But halfway through, I realized this
was the point. Turns out Timequake is a series of brilliant observations
and thoughts about life's cruelty, pure joy, and unexpected silliness.
The reason I was misled by a science fiction premise is that there is one at the core of the book, albeit faint. Vonnegut posits that the universe one day got sick of going forward in time and instantly went backwards ten years, then changed its mind and went back to normal. So everyone had to relive their ten years, this time as unwilling puppets, limiting their free will to their memories and minds.
But this absurd and ingeniously-never-explained universal quirk is merely a setup to allow Vonnegut to travel through time with his anecdotes and musings. Many of these are outright hilarious, though most are seemingly unrelated to anything else in the book. (The funniest concept repeated throughout the book is that when the "Timequake" is over, people used to running on auto-pilot are suddenly shocked to have free will. Most of them suddenly fall down.)
So it's just like Slaughterhouse Five but without poignancy. If you try out Timequake, keep your mind casual and don't expect a thrilling, suspenseful plot. It's more like having a pleasantly rambling conversation with a very intelligent old man. With this attitude in mind, the book comes out surprisingly coherent and whole by the end.