Galápagos
First published 1985 · English · 338 pages
- Novels
- Science fiction
- Dystopia
- Satire and humour
Narrated by a ghost looking back across a million years, this novel begins in the present day, when a financial crisis and a mysterious disease disrupt the world. A small group of travellers set out on a cruise to the Galápagos Islands, and become stranded there. Vonnegut imagines how the survivors might slowly evolve into a very different kind of creature. The book is a witty reflection on evolution, and on how humanity's oversized brain has caused so much of its trouble.
Quotes
Why so many of us a million years ago purposely knocked out major chunks of our brains with alcohol from time to time remains an interesting mystery. It may be we were trying to give evolution a shove in the right direction — in the direction of smaller brains.