Galápagos

“A madcap genealogical adventure... Vonnegut is a postmodern Mark Twain.”—The New York Times Book ReviewGalápagos takes the reader back one million years, to A.D. 1986. A simple vacation cruise suddenly becomes an evolutionary journey. Thanks to an apocalypse, a small group of survivors stranded on the Galápagos Islands are about to become the progenitors of a brave, new, and totally different human race. In this inimitable novel, America's master satirist looks at our world and shows us all that is sadly, madly awry–and all that is worth saving.Praise for Galápagos“The best Vonnegut novel yet!”—John Irving “Beautiful... provocative, arresting reading.”—USA Today“A satire in the classic tradition... a dark vision, a heartfelt warning.”—The Detroit Free Press “Interesting, engaging, sad and yet very funny... Vonnegut is still in top form. If he has no prescription for alleviating the pain of the human condition, at least he is a first-rate diagnostician.”—Susan Isaacs, Newsday “Dark... original and funny.”—People “A triumph of style, originality and warped yet consistent logic... a condensation, an evolution of Vonnegut's entire career, including all the issues and questions he has pursued relentlessly for four decades.”—The Philadelphia Inquirer “Wild details, wry humor, outrageous characters... Galápagos is a comic lament, a sadly ironic vison.”—St. Louis Post-Dispatch “A work of high comedy, sadness and imagination.”—The Denver Post “Wacky wit and irreverent imagination... and the full range of technical innovations have made [Vonnegut] America's preeminent experimental novelist.”—The Minneapolis Star and Tribune

a Small Group Of Apocalypse Survivors Stranded On The Galapagos Islands Are About To Become The Progenitors Of A Brave New Human Race. Vonnegut Is A Post-modern Mark Train. . . . Galapagos Is A Madcap Genealogical Adventure.--new York Times Book Review.

the New York Times - Lorrie Moore

although Certainly The Novel Has Something To Do With The Giant Crush America Has On Celebrity, The Famous People Never Really Do Make It Into The Story, And What We End Up With Is A Madcap Genealogical Adventure - A Blend Of The Old Testament, The Latin American Novel And A Lot Of Cut-up Comic Books - Employing A Cast Of Lesser-knowns That Includes A Schoolteacher Named Mary Hepburn, An Ecuadorean Sea Captain Named Von Kleist, A Former Male Prostitute Named James Wait (whose Skin Color Is ''like The Crust On A Pie In A Cheap Cafeteria''), A Dog Named Kazakh (who, ''thanks To Surgery And Training, Had Virtually No Personality''), Plus A Narrator Who Turns Out To Be None Other Than The Son Of Kilgore Trout, That Science Fiction Hack From Mr. Vonnegut's Earlier Books.

Observed by a ghost of the Vietnam War for one million years, the descendants of survivors of a cruise to the Galapagos Archipielago prove Darwin's Theory of Evolution. The ghost of a shipbuilder tells the story of an ill-fated cruise to the Galapagos Islands. THE THING WAS: One million years ago, back in 1986 A.D., Guayaquil was the chief seaport of the little South American democracy of Ecuador, whose capital was Quito, high in the Andes Mountains. A million years ago a small group takes a vacation to the Galapagos Islands where they are stranded, and now they must become the creators of a totally different human race