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Broad humor and bitter irony collide in this fictional autobiography of Rabo Karabekian, who, at age seventy-one, wants to be left alone on his Long Island estate with the secret he has locked inside his potato barn. But then a voluptuous young widow badgers Rabo into telling his life story—and Vonnegut in turn tells us the plain, heart-hammering truth about man's careless fancy to create or destroy what he loves.
Broad humor and bitter irony collide in Vonnegut's fictional biography of aging artist Rabo Karabekian--first introduced in Breakfast of Champions--who wants only to be left alone at his Long Island estate with the secret he has locked in his potato barn. "A joyous, soaring fiction."--Atlanta Journal and Constitution. Reissue.
| Price | Condition | Delivery | Seller | Action |
| $99.99 | Digital |
| WonderClub |
John Henrikson
reviewed Bluebeard on October 13, 2019 Bluebeard
"Everything about life is a joke. Don't you know that?"
From beginning to end, Bluebeard has Kurt Vonnegut written all over it. His irreverent tone, summed up in the quote above, along with his concomitant exploration of what it means to be human, brings together familiar themes in Vonnegut's work. Bluebeard is the mock autobiography of abstract expressionist painter, Rabo Karabekian, a character who first appeared in Breakfast of Champions. This is a book about what art is and what it can do in a society in which, according to Karabekian, "the young people of today seemed to be trying to get through life with as little information as possible."
For Karabekian, such information offers a connection to humanity and all of its symbols and cultural artifacts. It thus goes to the heart of what it means to be an artist. However, best-selling popular writer, Circe Berman (who moves in with Karabekian) tells him that such knowledge is useless. Their relationship reflects a debate between high and low culture. It is no surprise then that Karabekian and Berman have a very different view of the abstract expressionism Karabekian espouses. Karabekian is repeatedly asked to explain what his art is about. However, in a response that works for the artist as well as the writer, he repeatedly maintains that the artist doesn't owe it to the public to give them what they want. What's really wanted is a challenge.
Not sure how I'll place it with other Vonnegut classics, but I really enjoyed Bluebeard! 4.5 stars
"The darkest secret of this country, I am afraid, is that too many of its citizens imagine that they belong to a much higher civilization somewhere else. That higher civilization doesn't have to be another country. It can be the past instead'the United States as it was before it was spoiled by immigrants and the enfranchisement of the blacks."
From Bluebeard (1987)
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