Kurt Vonnegut, The Sirens of Titan

This book was amazing. Vonnegut did an excellent job of opening the readers eyes to seeing the world in a different light.

The Sirens of Titan takes place in the 22nd century, and focuses on Malachi Constant, of Hollywood, California, the richest and one of the most depraved, immoral men on Earth. Everything is going pretty smoothly for him, he's counting his money in his endless pure golden and diamond lined safe, swimming in his giant lagoon with a whole bunch of beautiful women, counting his money--when all of a sudden he is approached by Winston Niles Rumfoord, a very famous and powerful man, along with his good ol' dog, Kazak, who together mystifiy the population for one special thing he can do, that no one else on Earth can do: materialize, along with his dog. In other words, magically teleport themselves from one place to another, by simply standing in a single spot as they slowly disintegrate to oblivion--while they start dematerializing on a completely different planet in the Solar System, usually Mars. Winston and his dog travel all throughout the solar system by materializating and they become chrono synclastic infundibulated--the only man and dog on Earth to become chrono synclastic infundibulated. I am not too sure on the matter of chrono synclastic infundibulation because I forgot the basic concept of it from the book, even though I just recently finished reading The Sirens of Titan. Whether or not being chronosynclastic infudibulated has any influence on Winston so that he would have prophetic visionary powers, I am not positively sure. But Winston does indeed have prophetic visionary powers. He can look into the future. Winston approaches Malachi and tells-maybe even warns-Constant of his future to be. Which is that Constant will travel through the Solar System, with a "beautiful woman" at his side, Winston's wife, Beatrice Rumfoord and that the two will marry each other and even have a child together. He will first travel to Mars, then to Mercury, then back to Earth, then to Titan, one of the moons of Saturn, there, where he will die.

Constant, not willing to accept this as his future-to-be denies it will all his might, and goes through great troubles to try to prevent himself from his tour of the Solar System, with Beatrice by his side. Beatrice who hates Malachi(and vice versa) also cannot accept this fact, and also goes through great troubles to try to prevent Winson's prophetic vision of 'their' future to be from coming true. Ironically, their great efforts they display to try to prevent Winston's vision from happening in the first place actually somehow leads them to their ultimate fate 'together'.

Subsequently, they are taken to Mars on one of Winston's flying saucers, where they have their memories and true Earthling identities entirely erased. They have to start over, completely from scratch, as they are nudged by some invisible force to the planet Mercury, then back to Planet Earth, and finally to Titan, one of the moons of Saturn, where, as Winston Niles Rumfoord predicted, Malachi and his wife and his son would die. But not in vain, not in ignorance, as they, from all the troubles and trials and 'tours' they have gone through, suddenly realize as geysers on Titan, the meaning of life. The true purpose of human beings.

Fairly plot-less and lengthy, The Sirens of Titan, Kurt Vonnegut's second published novel, is still good, maybe even great, putting aside those two major flaws. You still need to take in the positives into consideration. It is funny(though not as funny as Slaughterhouse Five.) It is considered by many to be his best book. That may even be true. (Slaughterhouse Five would be a close 2nd.) It is the book where Vonnegut begins to find his writer's voice and his bitter, black humor. And to top it all off, it even has Vonnegut's opinion of the true meaning of life, the true purpose of human beings. I'm not going to tell or even hint to you what it is--you have to read the book and find out for yourself.

7 out of 10 stars.