Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut

With some naïvety I thought that Cat’s Cradle would produce an interesting contrast to my last read, Wise Blood. The two books are not complementary, and I was sorry to have jaundiced my first reading of Vonnegut.

Cat’s Cradle is narrated by Jonah, a journalist researching the ‘human events’ on the day of the dropping of the atom bomb on Hiroshima, for a book to be called, ‘The Day the World Ended.’ Initially Jonah is investigating the three offspring of a ‘father’ of the atom bomb, Dr Felix Hoenikker. In the course of his pursuit Jonah learns of the discovery and whereabouts of a crystalline compound, ice-nine, the exposure of which to water, instantaneously raises the freezing point with potentially dire consequences for humankind.