[ book tip by Adam Stevenson ] Timequake is like a Sphinx; part novel, part biography, part meditation, part lion, part human, part eagle – all wonderful. 

Kurt Vonnegut started writing a novel about a hiccough in time, where the universe has to live the past ten years all over again exactly. It was not very good. 

Instead of starting another new novel that would not be any good, he chopped out the pieces he liked from the original Timequake and mixed it haphazardly with reflections on his own life, his views and loving portraits of his dwindling family.   

To finish things off, he imagined a clambake at the end in which both the real and fictional were invited.  

Timequake is Kurt Vonnegut at his messiest and most meandering. Any reader searching for a gripping plot or fully fleshed out characters will not find them here. In theory, there should be nothing in this book to keep a person reading, yet it manages to be completely absorbing.  

It's the fight within the old man Vonnegut that provides the tension. His love and excitement at being alive and part of humanity is in conflict with moments of world-weariness and a dismay at people's inability to make their lives more pleasurable. This conflict is fought out in Vonnegut’s most direct, unpretentious and quotable prose. 

The standout sequence in the book sums the rest of it up. In this he describes a trip he usually makes to the post office to buy an envelope. He walks down the street hoping to bump into Katherine Hepburn, he talks to people in the queue and he looks forward to seeing the girl at the counter with her ever-changing hair style. Then he goes home. That is all that happens, but each small detail is full of a wonder and wistfulness. 

I won't tell you which side wins.

[ Favourite quote ] 'Listen: We are here on Earth to fart around. Don't let anybody tell you any different!'

[ book info ] Vonnegut, Kurt: Timequake. (Book language: English) Vintage , London , 1998 (1998). ISBN: 0425164349 .