Look, sometimes it just isn't worth going that far back into your favorite author's back catalog. These are the less popular books for a reason. Not that you can't find a diamond among the b-sides... but Galapagos just isn't one.

Vonnegut's style is there, but the book didn't really grab me until the last twenty pages. The payoff wasn't worth the slog of a read. Vonnegut uses two interesting devices: repetition and putting an asterisk next to names if that character's death is imminent. The asterisk adds a bit of tension at times, but the narrative is so drawn out I found myself thinking "just die already then!" While Vonnegut's use of repetition in other stories can lend rhythm and hammer home a point, here it just stretches an already thin narrative that much further.

I was surprised to find that Galapagos is a bit like "Blindsight": both argue that perhaps our big brains aren't all that helpful after all. Galapagos is a more comedic take, but ultimately isn't worth the time.