Sucker's Portfolio by Kurt Vonnegut

I have to wonder if obedience isn’t
the basic flaw in most of humankind.

In slowly working through my scant remaining volumes of Vonnegut, and in need of bumping up my ‘books reviewed’ figures for the year to date, I selected this short and slim volume that Amazon assured me was “…a collection of seven never before published works from Kurt Vonnegut.”

I call bullshit on that.

It might be that my mind, once so reliable, is playing tricks on me, it could be that someone is fucking lying, or it might be that my mind is playing tricks on me, but I’m confident I’ve read all these before somewhere else (except for the unfinished short sci-fi piece included as an appendix). No matter though, as for the short commuter journey from Penarth into Cardiff proper they were a thoroughly enjoyable, if slightly bleak in trademark Vonnegut black humanism style, amuse-bouche for the short commuter jaunt from my home in Penarth to my place of work… Have I said this before? No matter though, as they were thoroughly enjoyable, if slightly bleak…

Should I go on? I’ll go on.

I was much concerned by the fitful dribbles of unpublished material that somehow managed to find the light of day in the wake of Vonnegut’s untimely passing back in – Jeeping Christ! – 2007 for a variety of reasons, not least of which they were guilty of bypassing the censorship of the author. However, I really enjoyed this short collection and it could be considered peak Vonnegut, if such a thing were possible or indeed desirable. Although they were all creepingly familiar, like I’d read them somewhere before….

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