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Bagombo Snuff Box (Abridged) Audiobook
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(3.00) - 5,845 listener ratings
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Publisher Description
This is vintage Vonnegut: short stories never-before collected or published in book form. They are from the era of the Golden Age of magazines: a pre-television time when publications such as The Saturday Evening Post, Collier's, Argosy, and others reigned supreme as Americans' entertainment choice. Before that Golden Age drew to a close half a century ago, a young PR man at General Electric sold his first short story to one of the publications. By the time he'd sold his third, Vonnegut quit GE to join the likes of Hemingway, Fitzgerald, and Faulkner to write short stories at fifteen-hundred dollars a piece. Vonnegut himself has selected the best of these early stories for this audio collection, and has written a new preface and afterword for the occasion. Now listeners can relive the genesis of the master. Stories such as "Cruise of the Jolly Roger," "The Powder Blue Dragon," "Hal Irwin's Magic Lamp," and "Bagombo Snuff Box" return us to the beginning of a literary voice that's sure to endure forever. Bagombo Snuff Box, the missing pieces of the master's collection, is a ready-made classic for Vonnegut fans new and old.
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"This is a really nice collection of previously uncollected Vonnegut short stories. These were written in the late forties and appeared in various magazines. I think it's an important collection for serious Vonnegut fans, because it presents a great study of this master storyteller's early development as a writer. Already, he is exploring some of the themes he will later develop in much greater detail. And while it's not quite as sharp yet as it will eventually become, there are the beginnings of the acerbic Vonnegut wit that I so love."
— Bill (4 out of 5 stars)
Bagombo Snuff Box Listener Reviews
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" Good stuff...early Vonnegut...not quite as good as most of his stuff, but still worth a read if you are a Vonnegut fan..and who is not? "
— Jeff, 2/10/2014 -
" Too young. They're not ripe yet. "
— Will, 2/9/2014 -
" My first time reading Kurt Vonnegut. "
— Laura, 2/8/2014 -
" Vonnegut is always a little out there "
— Frank, 2/7/2014 -
" Some stories are downright boring. Most of them do not have happy endings, and that I can truly appreciate. The repeating themes are coming into/out of wealth, and relationships with husband/wife or parent/child. Overall one of his weakest works in my opinion. I wouldn't recommend it to a friend. "
— Dj, 2/1/2014 -
" Found the Dolmetscher short story hilarious. "
— Iida, 1/22/2014 -
" 1st ed. "
— Jonathan, 1/8/2014 -
" Writing lesson: solid, simple plots make great shorts. "
— Alec, 1/7/2014 -
" He sold these to various magazines in the 40's and 50's. I'd forgotten how much I liked his short stories from college. "
— Loreldonaghey, 1/3/2014 -
" Some of the short stories are really good, but there are a lot of fairly average stories. "
— Darren, 12/18/2013 -
" As a Vonnegut fan I was excited to read this book, but largely disappointed by it. I appreciate how it illuminates the times in which he was writing, but to me the collection lacks Vonnegut's masterful style and wit. The stories are largely trite. "
— Luke, 12/15/2013
About Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007) was a master of contemporary American literature. His black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America’s attention in The Sirens of Titan in 1959 and established him as “a true artist” with Cat’s Cradle in 1963.