View source for Look at the Birdie by Kurt Vonnegut

{{infobox
|title=Look at the Birdie
|sort=Look at the Birdie
|author=Kurt Vonnegut
|reviewer=Trish Simpson-Davis
|genre=Short Stories
|summary=A collection of short stories in which men stand alone to meet their fate.  Slightly dated, but stands the test of time: an enjoyable read.
|rating=4
|buy=Yes
|borrow=Yes
|paperback=0099548852
|hardback=
|audiobook=
|ebook=
|pages=272
|publisher=Vintage
|date=September 2010
|isbn=978-0099548850
|amazonuk=<amazonuk>0099548852</amazonuk>
|amazonus=<amazonus>0099548852</amazonus>
}}

Kurt Vonnegut died a couple of years ago after a sci fi writing career spanning 
over fifty years; he was well-known for his humanist views.  This collection of 
unpublished short stories shows Vonnegut at his dark best, his theme, 
individuals out for themselves in an uncaring society.  A colleague at The 
Bookbag [[Armageddon in Retrospect by Kurt Vonnegut|recently wrote]] that Kurt Vonnegut's early writing is his strongest.  If that is so, then this collection, illustrated with cartoons by the author, will be good news for his many fans.  

With no room for superfluous writing, the short story is apt to reveal the level 
of the writer's creativity when stripped down to bare bones.   Although as a 
genre they struggle to survive in the paperback market, I really enjoy the 
ingenious plotlines and myriad larger than life characters to be found in most 
collections and it's in this spirit that I commend ''Look at the Birdie'' to 
you.

In the title story, a small-time crook bemoans his fate in descending from a 
successful but faked life as a psychiatrist to mere blackmailer.  Vonnegut is 
the old-fashioned photographer who brings a black and white picture to life with 
his clear focus on personality.  The characters pose with stylised unreality as 
if for an old photo.

To Vonnegut's credit, the stories read well as ironic fairy tales.  ''Fubar'', 
for instance, is a story of the power of positive thinking.  The hero, Fuzz 
Littler, is permanently sidelined into an empty social club building because his 
department at work is already full.  He regards himself as ''fouled up beyond 
all recognition'', (hence the story's title) until the heroine arrives on the 
scene as a rescuing princess to point out all the advantages of his situation.  
Simplistic maybe, but the short story framework enhances the fairy tale.

Also in the fable style, Vonnegut deals his villains their just desserts.  In 
''Hall of Mirrors'', the initiative passes between detectives and murderer as 
quickly as reflections glance from mirror to mirror.  The truth is as fragile, 
the tension as brittle as glass.  It's only in the last sentence that good 
ultimately triumphs over evil, with a surprising twist in the tale, very 
characteristic of Vonnegut.

I also enjoyed the slightly longer ''Ed Luby's Key Club''.  A couple out for an 
anniversary dinner are framed on a murder charge when they offend a local 
gangster.  Events take a surprising turn when medics take the law into their own 
hands.  As with the other stories, I admit this portrays a rather more simplistic view of humanity than we are used to reading today.  But as with the other stories, my enjoyment of the novel plot made up for it. 
   
I'd like to thank the publishers for sending this book.

Further Reading:  If you enjoyed this book, then Jay McInerney's more acid wit 
in [[The Last Bachelor by Jay McInerney|The Last Bachelor]] is irrestistible. 

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