Hocus Pocus (novel)

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Hocus Pocus
cover of first edition (hardcover)
Author	Kurt Vonnegut
Country	United States
Language	English
Genre	Novel
Publisher	Putnam Publishing Group
Publication date	1990
Media type	Print (Hardcover & Paperback) and eBook
Pages	302 pp
ISBN	0-399-13799-8

Hocus Pocus, or What's the Hurry, Son? is a 1990 novel by Kurt Vonnegut.

Introduction

The main character and narrator is Eugene Debs Hartke, a Vietnam War veteran and college professor, and carillonneur who realizes that he has killed exactly as many people as the number of women he has had sex with. The character's name is a homage to American labor and political leader Eugene V. Debs and anti-war senator Vance Hartke, both from Vonnegut's home state, Indiana.

Plot

Eugene Debs is fired from his job as a college professor after having several of his witticisms surreptitiously recorded by the daughter of a popular conservative commentator. Eugene then becomes a teacher at a nearby overcrowded prison run by a Japanese corporation and comes to know members of each community while reflecting on his own history and ensuring his own survival.

External links

"Still Asking the Embarrassing Questions" in the New York Times

v t e Works by Kurt Vonnegut

Novels	Player Piano (1952) The Sirens of Titan (1959) Mother Night (1961) Cat's Cradle (1963) God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965) Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) Breakfast of Champions (1973) Slapstick (1976) Jailbird (1979) Deadeye Dick (1982) Galápagos (1985) Bluebeard (1987) Hocus Pocus (1990) Timequake (1997)

Story collections	Canary in a Cathouse (1961) Welcome to the Monkey House (1968) Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (1999) Armageddon in Retrospect (2008) Look at the Birdie (2009) While Mortals Sleep (2011) Sucker's Portfolio (2013)

Collected essays	Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974) Palm Sunday (1981) Fates Worse Than Death (1991) A Man Without a Country (2005) Armageddon in Retrospect (2008)

Scripts	Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970) Between Time and Timbuktu (1972) Make Up Your Mind (1993) Miss Temptation (1993) L'Histoire du Soldat (1993)

Adaptations	Displaced Person (1958, 1985) Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971) Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) Between Time and Timbuktu (1972) Next Door (1975) Slapstick of Another Kind (1982) Who Am I This Time? (1982) Harrison Bergeron (1995) Mother Night (1996) Breakfast of Champions (1999) 2081 (2009)

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