Deadeye Dick
Deadeye Dick is a novel by Kurt Vonnegut originally published in 1982.[1]
Plot summary
The novel's main character, Rudy Waltz, or "Deadeye Dick", commits accidental manslaughter as a child when he shoots a gun out of a window and fatally strikes a pregnant woman. Rudy was so traumatized and guilt-ridden by the incident that he lives life as an asexual "neuter," neither homosexual nor heterosexual. He tells the story of his life as a middle-aged expatriate hotel manager in Haiti, which symbolizes New York City, until the end, when the stream of time of the story catches up with him. At this point, he confronts an event that has been suggested and referred to throughout the novel. The generic Midwestern town of Midland City, Ohio, in which Rudy was raised, is virtually destroyed by a neutron bomb, all the people in the town dying. At the ending of the book, it appears that Rudy, while he may not have fully come to terms with his actions, has at least come to live with them.
Another key theme throughout the book is the relationship between Waltz and his parents and brother, Felix. His father, as a young man, lived in Austria and was one of the few people who was actually friends with Adolf Hitler before his rise to power. His father is also a failed artist, who does his best to protect Rudy, to the point when he insists on going to jail just to effectively make a point. Rudy's brother was the president of NBC, who is fired after his fourth marriage breaks up.
Place in the Vonnegut universe
Deadeye Dick is set mostly within fictional Midland City, Ohio, which is also the setting for one of Vonnegut's other seminal works, Breakfast of Champions. Several characters, locations, or concepts from that novel are mentioned in passing or have an active role in the story (e.g. Rabo Karabekian, Dwayne and Celia Hoover, the Mildred Barry Memorial Center for the Arts, and Barrytron Ltd., amongst others).
Reception
Dave Langford reviewed Deadeye Dick for White Dwarf #56, and stated that "The Vonnegut idiom of brief, flip, casual paragraphs lets him sneak through some shrewd blows under the lighthearted camouflage, but though often moving the technique sometimes rings hollow [...] Read the book, but warily."[2]
Reviews
- Review by Loree Rackstraw (1990) in Critical Essays on Kurt Vonnegut[3]
References
- ^ Lehmann-Haupt, Christopher (November 5, 1982). "Books of The Times". The New York Times. p. 23.
- ^ Langford, Dave (August 1984). "Critical Mass". White Dwarf. No. 56. Games Workshop. p. 16.
- ^ "Title: Deadeye Dick".
External links
- Vonnegut discusses Deadeye Dick with Martin Amis - a British Library sound recording
- v
- t
- e
- Player Piano (1952)
- The Sirens of Titan (1959)
- Mother Night (1961)
- Cat's Cradle (1963)
- God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965)
- Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)
- Breakfast of Champions (1973)
- Slapstick (1976)
- Jailbird (1979)
- Deadeye Dick (1982)
- Galápagos (1985)
- Bluebeard (1987)
- Hocus Pocus (1990)
- Timequake (1997)
- Sun Moon Star (1980)
- God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (1999)
- We Are What We Pretend to Be: The First and Last Works (2013)
- Canary in a Cat House (1961)
- Welcome to the Monkey House (1968)
- Bagombo Snuff Box (1999)
- Armageddon in Retrospect (2008)
- Look at the Birdie (2009)
- While Mortals Sleep (2011)
- Sucker's Portfolio (2013)
- Complete Stories (2017)
- Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974)
- Palm Sunday (1981)
- Fates Worse Than Death (1991)
- A Man Without a Country (2005)
- Armageddon in Retrospect (2008)
- If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young (2013)
- Kurt Vonnegut: Letters (2014)
- Vonnegut by the Dozen (2015)
- Fortitude (1968)
- Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970)
- Between Time and Timbuktu (1972)
- Like Shaking Hands with God (1999)
- Conversations with Kurt Vonnegut (1999)
- Kurt Vonnegut: The Last Interview (1999)
- Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971)
- Slaughterhouse-Five (1972)
- Between Time and Timbuktu (1972)
- Next Door (1975)
- Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1979)
- Slapstick of Another Kind (1982)
- Who Am I This Time? (1982)
- Displaced Person (1985)
- Kurt Vonnegut's Monkey House (1991)
- Harrison Bergeron (1995)
- Mother Night (1996)
- Breakfast of Champions (1999)
- 2081 (2009)
- 2BR02B: To Be or Naught to Be (2016)
and concepts
- Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library
- Vonnegut (Mercury crater)
- Jill Krementz (second wife)
- Mark Vonnegut (son)
- Edith Vonnegut (daughter)
- Kurt Vonnegut Sr. (father)
- Bernard Vonnegut (brother)
- Bernard Vonnegut Sr. (grandfather)
- Clemens Vonnegut (great-grandfather)