Like Mother Night, this novel is a sort of confession from our protagonist however, Hartke’s stated purpose is to name all the women he’s slept with and determine how many people he killed in the war.įriend and fellow Vietnam War soldier, Jack Patton, hails from Wyoming. He’s a Vietnam War vet and college professor who gets into trouble for his views on history and apocalyptic events. As he awaits trial, Hartke admits that he is nothing like his namesakes. Debs’ most famous quote, “while there is a lower class, I am in it, and while there is a criminal element I am of it, and while there is a soul in prison, I am not free” appears numerous times in the book. Our protagonist, Eugene Debs Hartke is named for the political activitist, Eugene Debs, and anti-war Senator, Vance Hartke.

While I found Kurt Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus interesting, this might well be my least favorite Vonnegut book. As he a 'The excrement has hit the air-conditioning, big time.' 'The excrement has hit the air-conditioning, big time.' While I found Kurt Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus interesting, this might well be my least favorite Vonnegut book. Vonnegut has taken the war and made it his, so that every single plot or narrative arc (because indeed, even with the masterful scatter plot-logic of this novel, there is much calculated thought mingled in with a raw emotion) returns always to Vietnam.more He's a master at making the protagonist both blatant observer & Man of Action. He writes about politics, & sex, & human ties. He has a beating heart, and it beats louder and faster, with a warlike violence and even more often with a human tenderness, as Vonnegut attempts to externalize all of his thoughts on this most miserable stage in American history. None of that with Vonnegut, who writes about the Vietnam War like no one else: with the courage to mix in futuristic and antiquarian events, all fictional but lifelike, as well as merging composite psyches with individual personal histories. He has a beating heart, and it beats louder and faster, with a warlike violence and even more often with a human tenderness, as Vonneg There are a couple of authors who aimlessly write, sometimes attaching all this 'drivel' to one profound, emblematic theme. There are a couple of authors who aimlessly write, sometimes attaching all this 'drivel' to one profound, emblematic theme.

Hocus focus puzzle