Galapagos (Magill Book Reviews)

At a glance:

  • Author: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
  • First Published: 1985
  • Type of Work: Novel
  • Genres: Long fiction

This evolutionary reversal is to occur, during the next million years or so, on and about Santa Rosalia in the Galapagos Islands, where Charles Darwin made so many of the observations that led him to the theory of evolution. The genetic materials which will work this ambiguous miracle of salutary regression are to be provided by the inept captain and several bizarre passengers of the BAHIA DE DARWIN at the conclusion of the “Nature Cruise of the Century.” Departing from Guayaquil, Ecuador, just as the world’s economy collapses and just before a plague destroys mankind’s capacity to reproduce, the BAHIA DE DARWIN becomes a latter-day Noah’s Ark, but a Noah’s Ark without a supernatural sponsor.

As in other of Vonnegut’s novels, the absurdities of chance rather than the interventions of Providence are the determinants of human destiny, and the closest thing to the voice of God is the mechanical babbling of the portable super-computer Mandarax. Narrated by the ghost of Kilgore Trout’s son Leon, a disillusioned Vietnam veteran whose life would make appropriate material for a future Vonnegut novel, GALAPAGOS is a flawed but fascinating book whose plot often moves forward too slowly, whose characters are sometimes less vivid than Vonnegut has shown himself capable of creating, but whose dark satiric vision is multifaceted and memorable.

Those who read GALAPAGOS for its story may be disappointed; those who read it for its ideas should be pleased.