Jailbird
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 Cover of first edition (hardcover) |
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| Author | Kurt Vonnegut |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Genre(s) | Novel |
| Publisher | Delacorte Press |
| Released | 1979 |
| Media type | Print (Hardcover & Paperback) |
| ISBN | ISBN 0-385-28627-9 |
Jailbird is a novel by Kurt Vonnegut originally published in 1979. It is about a man recently released from a low security prison. The novel eschews the typical build to a climax and reveals the outcome almost at the very beginning of the book. The novel's subject is Walter Starbuck, who, after being released from prison, merely wishes to get a job and live in moderate contentment.
The topic of Jailbird is mostly corporate America -- which runs United States businesses behind the scenes -- and the human weaknesses that may bring humanity back down from its capitalist high. The book makes references to actual persons, such as Sacco and Vanzetti, and its characters participate in historic events, such as the Watergate scandal.
Jailbird also features another appearance of Kilgore Trout, a recurring Vonnegut character who writes unpopular science fiction novels.
| Novels | 1950s: Player Piano (1952) • The Sirens of Titan (1959) 1960s: Mother Night (1961) • Cat's Cradle (1963) • God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine (1965) • Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade (1969) 1970s: Breakfast of Champions, or Goodbye, Blue Monday (1973) • Slapstick or Lonesome No More (1976) • Jailbird (1979) 1980s: Deadeye Dick (1982) • Galápagos (1985) • Bluebeard (1987) 1990s: Hocus Pocus (1990) • Timequake (1996) |
| Short story collections | Canary in a Cathouse (1961) • Welcome to the Monkey House (1968) • Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) |
| Collected essays | Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974) • Palm Sunday, An Autobiographical Collage (1981) • Fates Worse than Death, An Autobiographical Collage (1990) • God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (2001) • A Man Without a Country (2005) |
| Plays | Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970) • Between Time and Timbuktu, or Prometheus Five: A Space Fantasy (1972) • Make Up Your Mind (1993) • Miss Temptation (1993) • L'Histoire du Soldat (1993) |
| Adaptations | |
| Stage | Welcome to the Monkey House (1970, 1974) • Sirens of Titan (1974) • Cat's Cradle (1976) • God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1979) • Breakfast of Champions (1984) • Requiem (Stone, Time, and Elements: A Humanist Requiem) (1988) • Slaughterhouse-Five (1996) |
| Film | Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971) • Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) • Next Door (1975) • Slapstick of Another Kind (1982) • Mother Night (1996) • Breakfast of Champions (1999) |
| Television | Displaced Person (1958, 1985) • EPICAC (1974, 1992) • Who Am I This Time? (1982) • All the King's Horses (1991) • Next Door (1991) • The Euphio Question (1991) • Fortitude (1992) • The Foster Portfolio (1992) • More Stately Mansions (1992) • Harrison Bergeron (1995) |
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