Galapagos

If you are looking for a kindler, gentler world, take the hand of Kurt Vonnegut, you are not alone.  Narrated by a ghost, a million years hence, this novel finds mankind completely blissful as furry, web-footed fish-eating mammals; darting in and out of the water.  We had, eons ago, traded in our big brains for flippers--a reversal of Man’s Fall in the Bible.  It was our big brains that caused all the trouble:  genocide, pollution, nuclear weapons, greed, and heartlessness.  If intelligence becomes a threat to survival, Vonnegut argues, then beings who are less intelligent will best survive: behold the shark!  A chilling thought; but not without indifference to human fate.  An excerpt from Anne Frank’s diary opens a book: “In spite of everything, I still believe people are good at heart.” We must recognize our own mortality, but feel hope.  We must achieve the “Ode to Joy”--without the death camps.  Vonnegut, in his constant concern for the human condition, gives us a lively cast of characters--even a gigalo--in this metaphor which is an indictment of superficial American values.  And difficult to forget.