Cat's Cradle
Kurt Vonnegut
This book was bought for me by a patient some time ago and it took me a while to get around to reading it. Vonnegut was friends with Joseph Heller (catch-22) as many authors seem to be friends with other great authors.
This book is harrowing if you get to understand it. The patient who bought me the book used to be a journalist in a high level American newspaper and is friends with Clint Eastwood! She is convinced the human race will make itself extinct within the next 100 years and on reading Cat's Cradle, it is hard to see otherwise.
It will take one minor scientific mess to wipe out the whole of the planet.
It's a bizarre, arty, self-indulgent book that is difficult to follow at time because of the weirdness of the story but the general premise is terrifying, probably because it is just so utterly possible.
I don't want to give any of the story away, it is a short book, a 2 day read if you've got time and probably one that you should tick off but beware for how you feel afterwards and the despair that will overtake you for a little while.
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