Galapagos – Kurt Vonnegut

The first thing to get out of the way is that the story is narrated from one million years in the future by the disembodied spirit (ghost) of Leon Trotsky Trout (Vonnegut aficionados will make the connection to Kilgore Trout) who died shortly before the events he wishes to relate took place.

Bear with me; the million year perspective is necessary as a central theme is evolution, which takes this sort of time frame to operate. But this is no overblown epic as most of the action occurs over a few days in 1986 around the planned departure date of the SS Bahia de Darwin on the “Nature Cruise of the Century” to the Galapagos Islands.

That things do not go according to plan for the captain and would-be passengers (a strange but interesting mix) is due to a man-made crisis and potential catastrophe inevitable, according to Trout with the benefit of his million year hindsight, as the human brain had got just too big and clever for the good of the species.

His (Trout speaking for Vonnegut) hypothesis is that brain development, having given an evolutionary advantage for millennia is now (1986) doing the opposite, evidenced by irrational and short term attitudes to war, crime, economics, climate change, etc. An evolutionary correction is overdue; and when it arrives, those aboard the Bahia de Darwin heading for the Galapagos may be the raw material on which it has to work.

Those who have read the classic Slaughterhouse 5 will recognise the style and structure; easy conversational narrative, looking backwards and forwards in time, with regular excursions to fill in back stories of more or less relevance to the tale. The frequent references to events yet to happen are at first intriguing, then teasing, but by the end were in danger of becoming irritating.

Based on my sample of two books, read 40 years apart, Vonnegut (who died in 2007) was a writer with something to say, be it idiotic or idiosyncratic, who said it with wit and style. Slaughterhouse 5 has never left my consciousness, and I’ve a feeling Galapagos will stick too.