Timequake

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For an alternate meaning of timequake, see Millennium (film).

Timequake is a semi-autobiographical work by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. published in 1996.

[edit] Plot

In this concluding work in the novel form, Vonnegut uses the premise of a timequake (or repetition of actions) in which there is no free will. Vonnegut uses the idea of determinism as in many of his previous works (such as Slaughterhouse-Five) to assert that persons really have no free will. Kilgore Trout serves again as the main character. Vonnegut explains in the beginning of the book that he was not satisfied with the original version of Timequake he wrote (or Timequake One). So, he took parts of Timequake One and combined it with personal thoughts and anecdotes to make Timequake Two or the actual novel Timequake. Many of the anecdotes deal with Vonnegut's family, the deaths of loved ones, and people's last words.

The plot, while centered on Trout, is also a sort of ramble in which Vonnegut goes off on complete tangents to the plot and comes back dozens of pages later: the Timequake has thrust citizens of the year 2001 back in time to 1991 to repeat every action they undertook during that time. The book was written in 1996, halfway through the relapse. At the end, in 2001, the timequake ends and everyone regains control of their bodies. This creates initial pandemonium, as everyone is used to "automatic pilot." This caused Trout to write a book titled My Ten Years on Automatic Pilot.

In the conclusion of this book, Vonnegut (who has inserted himself into the text as well as being its narrator, something he also did in Breakfast of Champions) meets other authors for a celebration to recognize Trout as a hero. With this recognition, Trout alludes to being sleepy. Ultimately, Vonnegut uses Trout thus to express his stepping down from writing novels and his increasing closeness to death. It is, to date, his last novel - though not his last book.