Hocus Pocus

Hocus Pocus from the teenage perspective

I'm new to the world of Vonnegut; this is the fourth book I've read in his novel panoply. Hocus-Pocus is brilliant and darkly humorous. It's the autobiography of Eugene Debs Hartke, a Vietnam vet who is embroiled in the siege of a community college at the hands of escaped convicts. This is the typical Kurt Vonnegut novel, filled with biting sarcasm and gallows humor. I highly recommend this one-- it's hard to put down.

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:)

Thus a good book

FATHER+WAS+A+SOCIALIST

All+I+needed+to+know+from+this+book.

Little of interest

I don't know how it got published!

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VONNEGUT!

Hilarious; one of my favorites.

Hocus Pocus

Very funny. Classic Vonnegut. The tale is appealing in the sense of plot, but also has a meaning. Great for a Vonnegut fan.

Snowshack reading at the best I had it!

Through the summer I worked at a little snochack and I read planty of great books (Chuck Palahniuks stuff, Kurt Vonnegut) I had some of the most fun reading Vonneguts Hocus Pocus. though it can not measure up to Slaughter House Five I still enjoyed it amazingly. the whole math thing at the end perplexed me since I am obvioulsy a reader not a mathmatician. and I also dont nkow if I screwed up or not and I am not sure if that number came to 1 or 0 it drives me mad to this day. I could not find if the ame of that movie was 2001 or 2000 and so my eventual answer is shady. nevertheless I absolutely loved this one this is one of vonneguts best a long with Slaughter House Five and Breakfast of Champions

hocus pocus

i loved it! When i first started reading it i thought it to be slow moving, so i put it down and started to read another vonnegut novel(slapstick, i think). Well, about a week later i couldnt stop thinking about debbs. I picked it up again that night and didn't sleep untill it was done. When i think back on it, it has to be one of his best. this book sticks to your ribs. mmm.

Awesome book.......

...but then again every Vonnegut book i read turns out awesome. Hocus Pocus is especially great because the main character is so likeable despite his great faults. the last line of the novel is especially unforgettable.

My Hocus Pocus

There is something too puzzling about Kurt Vonnegut's Hocus Pocus, though I liked it. It's pleasant to read because of the subtle breaks from beginning to end and also because of the mixture of genres. Puzzling and mixture of genres go well together. I don't like science fiction and don't read it, but the serving of it in Hocus Pocus is palatable--or maybe 'fantasy' is better. Personally, so much is wrong with America that a puzzling effect strikes me as appropriate. The narrative voice is charming and, from the first page, we are clued in to the immortal subject of man and his fate, or Man. Man has common traits; history has common elements. It seems man with his problem has to have a charming voice somehow. America is in trouble, according to Eugene Debs Hartke, our illustrious narrator. 'At least the World will end, an event anticipated with great joy by many,' he asserts at the start. I judge the novel to be a very fine and worthwhile construction inasmuch as Vonnegut deftly brings in the contexts of wasteland and apocalyptic literature. What better sty of contentment for man to sit in? An unknown son, Rob Roy, even sprouts at the end. Eugene is very sympathetic and wins me over from the get go. Although Vonnegut chooses atheism for his belief, Eugene is a very understanding and intelligent character. Time and luck move the world, Eugene says. Nihilism is the milieu in which Eugene proceeds. Society is imprisoning all of its social problems. The book begins at the end, but the narrator's life proceeds from childhood, to West Point, to the Vietnam War, to Tarkington College, to Athena Prison, and finally to Brigadier General in the National Guard (all dressed up and nowhere to go). He is a prisoner awaiting trial at the end of his life. He is literally and figuratively fired at Tarkington College. He was too negative a teacher, in Jason Wilder's view. Throughout all of that, Eugene illustrates the helplessness of man vis-a-vis the inexorableness of fate. Therefore, his pessimism all through is correct. He is fed up with the human race. It is interesting to ponder the irony of Eugene's becoming a teacher again in the prison after he is fired at Tarkington. Man's values are too awry, perhaps? The social problems of the United States, a 'crock of doo-doo,' definitely form the landscape in which Eugene is both a hapless citizen and perceptive critic. Man that is living is having lots of bad luck. Vonnegut would like us to consider the prison/college parallel. What is so difficult about developing man's potential? Lawlessness and disorder will prevail and spread if man does not examine and establish a judicious value system. 'I did not have to ask the meaning of all this. It was obvious that Tarkington College, which as the prison across the lake had grown and grown, was itself a prison now.' It's all well and good for the prison's warden, Matsumoto, to believe education is beneficial. However, a prison is not the right locale to live that belief in. So, where does Vonnegut locate faith and hope for man? Well, it's not a book about faith and hope, to be sure. I believe that Vonnegut is teaching us that faith and hope for man's regeneration lie in Eugene's (and, by extension, man's) own questioning, probing attitude toward the chaos enveloping him. Sorry but the destructiveness is too embedded. Man can turn to a kinder source of ethics. Witness, for example, that Sam Wakefield reappears later in the novel as a Christ image. Would you develop that? I don't know. Hocus pocus, after all, is not a value system.

Hocus Pocus

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. 302pages Hocus Pocus is about a Vietnam Veteran who takes you on a voyage through his life and bits of the present. He takes a humorous outlook on the events of his life. What makes this book interesting is the events that take place in the non-existent character¿s life and how he tells them. His whole life has been affected by the Vietnam War. His wife and his mother-in-law have gone crazy yet he still lives with them. He works at a college for the mentally challenged rich kids of the world. He eventually goes to work at a nearby prison and is actually sent to prison in later life. For the duration of the book, you are wondering about a certain detail that the author holds until the end. When the end does come about, the wondering is ceased by a complicated answer to the desired question. All in all the book must be read in order to grasp the true feeling of Kurt Vonnegut¿s writings. ~Andrew Robinson

A view point from a TEEN,, yes a teenager

Hocus Pocus is actually quite interesting. At first I didn't think so, but its great. Its not too long and definately keeps your interest. From the Vietnam war to teaching and the prison, this is certainly a book you should read. If you like a humorus but also serious book, you'll love this!! Especially if your a fan of Vonnegut.

Perfect in every way!

This has completely changed my mind about Vonnegut. He is a literary genius. He does not follow the rules of conventional literature. He is a master satirist. One book everybody should have to read!

Wonderful Satire

Eugene Debs Hartke takes the reader on a wild ride full of digressions, obscure facts, and aphorisms. The the small, upstate New York town nestled along the frozen shores of Lake Mohiga that Eugene describes is an interesting study in contrasts, as is the life that is related to the reader. A very enjoyable satire that asks the question of, 'Why are we here?' and 'What is the real meaning of life?' right up to the end.

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