Well, it seems that the reissue of Kurt Vonnegut’s work continues its course thanks to Blackie Books, who for the occasion are in charge of offering us a new delicacy of high-flying literature by one of the most transcendent and original literary icons that we have seen. provided the 20th century. Not in vain, “The Sirens of Titan” is a feat of science fiction, originally published in 1959, within the golden years of said genre, which encompasses the fifties and sixties. In this sense, the same philosophical condition that underlies the most memorable efforts offered to us by the Stanislaw Lem, Philip K. Dick and company are also reflected in the pages that make up this novel, guaranteed to provide an answer to the ultimate question of universal art. In other words, what is the meaning of life?
The mere fact of convincing us with the explanation narrated here (spoilers prohibited, please) adds a unique dimension to a book, on the other hand, very entertaining. In it, we are going to meet typical characters cut by the Vonnegut pattern. One of them is the delirious Malachi Constant, from whom he emanates charm and depravity in equal parts.
Appearances like his serve to ensure that the high philosophical degree distilled at all times never falls into the pedantic and dense traps that characterize many of his contemporaries when they delved into the swampy sands of predictions and mysteries related to time travel. .
Of course, the writing is always agile, propelled by liters of latent irony, always crouched to jump at the neck of topics such as religion or war. Of course, with the skill of someone who knows how to avoid common themes that end up bordering on pamphleteering intonation, something of which there is no hint of existence in such a greedy reading, ideal to remind us of the magnitude of an author, sometimes, vampirized by the echo. eternal of “Slaughterhouse five”.