CAT'S CRADLE

Tony Roberts has a plummy voice touched with petulance. This tone was appropriate when he played the hapless good-looking friend in early Woody Allen movies. The undertone of disappointment is also apt for this beloved first novel by Kurt Vonnegut. CAT'S CRADLE was published in 1963. The hero is named Jonah, and the news is always bad. The world doesn’t end with a bang, or a whimper. It ends with Ice Nine and a rueful chuckle. Vonnegut’s own voice—roughed by a million cigarettes—is heard in an interview tacked on at the end. “My dying words are ‘Life is no way to treat an animal,’” he said, and then he laughed. The great-hearted pessimist of American literature died in 2007 at the age of 84. B.H.C. © AudioFile 2008, Portland, Maine [Published: APR/ MAY 08]