Cat's Cradle by Kurt Vonnegut'

Nick writes:

Of the two I have read, I certainly would say that Cat's Cradle
is the better classic novel. Jude the Obscure was good, but I
think Kurt Vonnegut's writing style suits me more. I'm more than
half way done with the novel Cat's Cradle and considering the
fact that I actually enjoy reading this one a lot, I think I may
finish it in the near future. Basically this book is a story of a
man who finds his story while trying to tell another man's story.
The main characters life is explained, but not told. Really the
reader learns about how he lives and what effects his decisions
rather than what events took place in his life. The Book also
revolves mainly on the ideas of Bokonism. I imagine this is a
made up religion for this book, but as you read on you learn more
and more about this crazy religion. I now know that there's an
island, San Lorenzo. On San Lorenzo Bokonism is illegal. The
reason it's illegal is because the person who created the
religion made it illegal, and made himself a convict by doing so.
It appears to make no sense but I believe he did it so that only
his true followers stay with him. The crazy thing is that almost
everyone on the island is a Bokonist. It's really odd, but the
punishment for practicing the beliefs is to get "The Hook"
basically a form of hanging execution. I'm not sure exactly what
"the Hook" is but I'm positive it's brutal and keeps everyone in
fear. Another thing I have come to realize as I read is that in
this novel you have to pay attention to the development of ideas
a lot more than the characters. I'm amazed at how little the
characters actually matter in this story. Normally if I like a
book this much then I am crushed to see a character killed or
dying or dead. In this particular novel I think I would easily
come to grips with the death of any character if it would
contribute to the development of the conceptual part of the
story. Kurt Vonegut has a unique writing style, and it definitely
fits me. Yet another thing I love about this book is that it's
split into 127 small chapters with interesting names that make
reading a bit more fun. Some examples are chapter 19 "No more
mud" chapter 23 "The Last Batch of Brownies" and chapter 80 "The
Waterfall Strainer". I really like this novel, and I'm glad I
got it, it's a good read and puts an interesting twist on what I
usually read.