Though HOCUS POCUS continues to riff on Kurt Vonnegut's favorite themes--the breakdown of society, the inexorable doom of mankind, and the pathetic comedy of life on Earth--it stands out from the majority of his work in that it utilizes fewer fantastical and science-fictional elements to deliver its hilariously cynical judgment on civilization and the human race. The novel's protagonist and narrator, Eugene Debs Hartke, is imprisoned. Writing on random scraps of paper, he simultaneously tells his life story and reveals his philosophy. A Vietnam veteran with countless deaths to his name, Hartke returns to the United States in the 1960s and gets a job in upstate New York teaching the mentally disabled children of the rich. However, after he tells them to expect only failure in their lives, he is fired, and finds work at the nearby Japanese-owned all-black prison. There, he teaches English, which only leads to an increase in anti-Semitism and masturbation. Finally, the convicts escape and wreak bloody havoc on the nearby school--all of which is blamed on Hartke. Typically of Vonnegut's fiction, the tone is light and witty, but the subject matter is viciously pessimistic. Since HOCUS POCUS moves the closest to reality of any of Vonnegut's works, it is liable to disappoint fans of his more outlandish conceits, but appeal to those who have always craved more substance to his pyrotechnical imagination.

From the author of Timequake, this "irresistible" novel (Cleveland Plain Dealer) tells the story of Eugene Debs Hartke -- Vietnam veteran, jazz pianist, college professor, and prognosticator of the apocalypse. It's "Vonnegut's best novel in years -- funny and prophetic...something special". (The Nation)

From the author of Timequake, this "irresistible" novel (Cleveland Plain Dealer) tells the story of Eugene Debs Hartke -- Vietnam veteran, jazz pianist, college professor, and prognosticator of the apocalypse. It's "Vonnegut's best novel in years -- funny and prophetic...something special". (The Nation)