Hocus Pocus

I've sort of lost count, but I believe that this is the seventh Vonnegut book I've read, and unfortunately Hocus Pocus joins Welcome to the Monkey House in the short list of ones I didn't like. Like many Vonnegut novels, Hocus Pocus is written as a fictional autobiography, this time about Vietnam vet Eugene Debs Hartke. The primary focus of the novel is the period of his homecoming from Vietnam through the present, where he finds himself a hostage in a prison riot in upstate New York. Vonnegut's sarcastic wit is still here, as well as his ability to develop a plot covering a wide range of topics. What's missing here is the glue to keep it all together- I kept waiting for a conclusion that would tie together all the plots; plots that on their own would be interesting enough to carry their own seperate books- Eugene's family's spiral into insanity, his sudden questioning of his atheism, his loss of faith in America after the mess that was Vietnam- all of these stories individually felt worth reading about but never were fully developed enough to make a good enough impression. I'm torn- I feel like this book could have been improved upon either by making it longer to expand on some of these themes, or shorter by cutting some of them out entirely.

The final sentence of Hocus Pocus is one I've heard quoted a few times before, I'll share it here as it's not much of a spoiler: "Just because some of us can read and write and do a little math, that doesn't mean we deserve to conquer the universe." While an interesting idea, this line did not feel like a fitting ending to the book- in fact, the only place I can apply it is that Hartke (and Vonnegut) think that America's intrusion in Vietnam was a mistake. First, that's something that's generally agreed upon by society, so Vonnegut wasn't saying much new. Second, that only applies to the Vietnam parts of the book- if this was the conclusion, what was the point of including the rest of Hartke's story? I guess it's just a bit frustrating, as the writing is still good in Hocus Pocus, and it's clear Vonnegut had a message to take away from it, I just couldn't figure it out.