Kurt Vonnegut

Tender stories of love, incisive essays on human greed and misery, and imaginative tales of futuristic happenings reveal Vonnegut's versatility and vision

A Collection of Short Works

Welcome to the Monkey House

A collection of twenty-five short works by the American author written between 1950 and 1968 and originally printed in a wide range of publications including "The Atlantic Monthly," "Esquire," and "Ladies' Home Journal."

a collection of short works

Welcome to the monkey house

里森

My only sister, five years older than I, died when she was forty. She was over six feet tall, too, by an angstrom unit or so. She was heavenly to look at, and graceful, both in and out of water. She was a sculptress. She was christened “Alice,” but she used to deny that she was really an Alice. I agreed. Everybody agreed. Sometime in a dream maybe will find out what her real name was. S

Patrick Book

As might be expected with a short story collection, these are not all perfect stories. But there are enough great ones and more than his fair share of absolutely perfect ones that it's an essential part of Vonnegut's legacy. The speculative horror of "Harrison Bergeron," the morally compromised Venn diagram of sex and death in "Welcome To The Monkey House," the period-appropriate romance of "Long Walk to Forever," the wounded humanism of "Miss Temptation," the militaristic monsters of "All The King's Horses," the subtle humour of his review of a dictionary, the political and familial machinations of "The Hyannis Port Story," and the technological paranoia of "Report On The Barnhouse Effect" and "The Euphio Question" and "The Manned Missles" and "EPICAC" and others...all of them fantastic.

Then there's "Who Am I This Time?" I know "Harrison Bergeron" is widely considered his best short work, but to me there's something so simple and painfully human about "Who Am I This Time?" that elevates it to the top. The notion that love can rise above and win out even when a person's self-identity is non-existent is, to me, the very essence of what makes Vonnegut's writing special. His unassailable romanticism is so often overlooked amidst the bleakness of some of his novels, it is refreshing and comforting to see it plainly displayed. I don't know, man. This story was so darn powerful I cried like a baby.

Sarah Sammis

Welcome to the Monkey House is a collection of short stories written by Kurt Vonnegut in the 1950s and 1960s. The collection was first printed in 1970.

Despite the age of the stories, they hold up remarkably well. Vonnegut's tales are character driven explorations of basic human emotions and needs. Although the collection can be classified as science fiction, not all of the stories have science fiction elements. The science fiction is a means to an end, not a gimmick.

The book's title comes from the fourth story. It is a look at the world in the future, over populated with mostly with people who look forever stuck in their twenties thanks to advances in medicine. To keep the population down, people are forced to take "ethical birth control" and everyone is encouraged to do their part by offing themselves at the local suicide parlor (conveniently located next door to the government run Howard Johnson's). There is something deliciously Futurama about "Welcome to the Monkey House" (1968).

My over all experience with Welcome to the Monkey House was enjoyable but there were some stories that fell short. Among those is "All the Kings Horses" (1953), a chess game played with prisoners of war. It feels out of place with the sillier stories in the collection, "Tom Edison's Shaggy Dog" (1953) for example. The other hit against it, is that I had just finished re-reading Waiting for the Barbarians which has many of the same themes but presented better.

“long walk to forever” — oh, this short story messed with my heart.

Andrew John Kinney

I love Kurt Vonnegut, and have since I was about 15, so I'm biased. Each year I try to find a new book or set of stories by Mr. Vonnegut that I have yet to enjoy, and this year it was Welcome to the Monkey House. Actually, as I read, I realized I had read a few of these as a teenager, but it was good to read them again. So sad that he died from a fall at 84. My guess is he would have been deadpan wisecracking well into his 90's if he had lived. What a man, and what a voice for the portion of the WWII generation that saw and understood the horror of that war. My dad was a WWII vet, and I grew up worshipping him, and I wanted to go to West Point like he did (he got there the hard way, after a stint as an infantryman). One day, I guess I waxed a little too enthusiastic about how great it would be to be in the military like he had been. He smiled at me, and then he got very still. And he said, "You know, John, war is the absolute worst thing that can happen". Not something that a worshipful 16-year-old intuitively understands, and it was good that he said it to me. Vonnegut knew what my dad knew about war, and Kurt said so in unvarnished terms, as such things really should be said.

linda

Hans Gerwitz

Thoroughly brilliant. Many of these shorts are so emotionally engaging I feel the need to pause and recover before starting the next.

Jk Jensen

Welcome to the Monkey House is a good buffet of KV's broad work. One can find humor, wonder, and thought-provoking questions in these short stories. Some are great, others are just good.

Omar AlHashmi

Vonnegut does it again. 

This took me way longer than intended, probably due to the hectic nature of my first week back in uae. Nevertheless, I'm glad I read it. 
I was never a big fan of a book of collection of short stories. Usually there would be a lot of hit and miss. With Welcome To The Monkey House however, literally every short story was memorable. Maybe one was mediocre, but all of the rest were so good. I can't stress enough how each individual short story was able to stand on its own, and also made me think of each one after I let the book down. 

If you are a fan of Vonnegut, you shouldn't miss out on this book.... 5/5

Alexia

Favorite stories: 

- EPICAC
- The Kid Nobody Could Handle
- Adam
- The Foster Portfolio 
- Tom Edison’s Shaggy Dog
- Report on the Barnhouse Effect
- Unready to Wear

Gabe Cortez

Martha F.

Sveinbjörn Pálsson

Erik Wallace

John Lopiano Jr.

Luca Masters

Brian Duffy

Michael Springer

coriander

The Hissing Saint

Kurt Vonnegut, described by Graham Greene as "One of the best living American writers", is equally well known as an essayist and commentator on American society as he is a novelist. This volume brings together the best of his shorter work - essays, stories, speeches, letters, articles and autobiography.

Welcome to the Monkey House A Collection of Short Works

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