Kurt Vonnegut's latest novel (1996) and likely his final one. In the year 2001, the universe questions whether it's all worth it and stops growing, actually shrinking 10 years.

Everyone must relive 1991 through 2001 exactly as they had the first time. They each wonder if they are going insane but can't ask anyone as they haven't the first time around. It is as if they are actors. Suddenly, in 2001 Free Will returns and many cannot deal. Kilgore Trout revives people with his call of "You were sick and now you are well again and there's work to be done."

It calls into question free will vs. determinism as Vonnegut did in Slaughterhouse Five. Along with several other tales of John Wilkes Booth, he tells how he broke his leg when he leapt out of the booth that held Lincoln's dead body and broke his leg. "Which was bound to happen when an actor writes his own material."

This novel has a less convincing tone to it, as if Vonnegut wasn't positive what he was saying or if what he said was correct. However, it remains classic Vonnegut.

Vonnegut is an author widely known for his mind-blowing novels and sprawling style.  In Timequake, he does not disappoint.  While not as classic as Slaughterhouse Five, it is still good Vonnegut.  (Although, many people state that they like his earlier novels better.  It's opinion.)

The author's disconnected and sprawling style really shows - Timequake is more a collection of anecdotes, fictional and real, in no particular order.  Some of it is from "Timequake One," the original story that was scrapped.  Vonnegut actually references "Timequake One" within "Timequake Two," along with several other short stories that he never published.  He credits these to "Kilgore Trout," a sort of alter-ego.  (Well, it's complicated.)

One theme of the novel is free will or the lack thereof. 
When the universe sends everyone back ten years, everyone on earth is forced to repeat everything over again, exactly the way they did before.  They know what is coming, but are unable to do anything about it.  Thus, over the course of ten years, people fall to apathy about what they are doing - they no longer have free will.  Once the Timequake ends, this "Post-Timequake Apathy" stops everything in its tracks.  People have become so used to a lack of free will that once they obtain it, they stop short, not knowing what to do.  Cars crash because their drivers don't steer, people fall mid-step, and everything is chaos as everyone stops.
Basically, humans are very prone to letting outside influences make decisions.  Once a dictator emerges (in the novel, the universe itself), people will simply fall into step without thinking.  This apathy is dangerous.

While not his last novel (God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian was published in 2000), it certainly wraps up his life.  The points he made so eloquently in his other novels all come in at some point, during some anecdote.  His experiences with war and family, as well as bitter and biting humor, all come into play.  This leads to a more disconnected and unstructured feel than his other works, but it gives more insight into how his insights were formed.

I would recommend this to anyone who appreciates other books by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., but if you haven't read him at all, you probably would not find much pleasure in it.  When I read it for the first time, I couldn't stand it; after I finished Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle, I reread it and found much more to it than I had originally thought.

(We'll all meet one day at the great clambake in the skyTing-a-ling, you son of a bitch!  :D )

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