Galapagos

by

English language

ISBN:
978-0-385-33387-0
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3 stars (1 review)

Galápagos (1985) is the eleventh novel published by American author Kurt Vonnegut. Set in the Galápagos Islands after a global financial disaster, the novel questions the merit of the human brain from an evolutionary perspective. The title is both a reference to the islands on which part of the story plays out, and a tribute to Charles Darwin, on whose theory Vonnegut relies to reach his own conclusions. It was published by Delacorte Press.

2 editions

reviewed Galapagos by Kurt Vonnegut

Good idea but doesn't really go anywhere

3 stars

Though I guess that's what you could say about humanity as a whole, right?

Anyway, this is a story about how the next million years of humanity begin with a shipwreck on one of the Galapagos islands, leading to the few people surviving it becoming the ancestors of the next stages of humanity, all narrated by a ghost. But of course, being Vonnegut, it's not really about that, it's about evolution and the dead end of thinking our "big brains" will solve everything for us. There's some good lines and some interesting thoughts in there - this is Vonnegut, after all - but it's slight and unfocused, unsure of what to focus its attention on.