Bluebeard by Kurt Vonnegut

I am happy and sad.  Happy because I had not read this novel before.  Sad  because, now I have finished it, I have read all of Kurt Vonnegut's novels.  They ain't making them like that anymore.  *Sigh*

Bluebeard is subtitled The Autobiography of Rabo Karabekian. It is the story of a one-eyed man (one-eyed both physically and metaphorically). We have met Karabekian before in Breakfast of Champions and tangentially in Deadeye Dick.  As with quite a few Vonnegut novels, this tale starts near the end of the narrative timeline.  The story then alternates between the present and the past.  As is also the case with other Vonnegut novels, this is also an inter-generational tale.

Rabo Karabekian is the child of two survivors of the Armenian "genocide" in Turkey during the First World War.  The elder Karabekians make their way to California via Egypt, having lost a fortune on the way, and start a family.  Later, Rabo shows some talent as an artist and, through a convoluted sub-plot, becomes apprenticed to America's foremost illustrator.  It is a hard and bitter apprenticeship, and finally Rabo eschews realism, preferring to specialise in abstract expressionism.  For one reason or another, he becomes a successful artist and a wealthy man.  Despite this, Rabo is haunted by regret, bitterness and disillusionment.  And then a certain person comes into his life ...

Thematically, Bluebeard is about the artificial extended families most of us manage to cobble together in the course of our lives.  Rabo says:

My parents were born into biological families, and big ones, too, which were respected by Armenians in Turkey.  I, born in America far from any other Armenians, save for my parents, eventually became a member of two artificial extended families which were reasonably respectable, although surely not the social equals of Harvard or Yale:
1. The Officer Corps of the Unites States Army in time or war,
2.the Abstract Expressionist school of painting after the war.

Of course, Rabo is not exactly correct in his generalisations: he also belongs to a little group of friends, with a kind of rotating membership, that is very important and influential in his life.

Vonnegut's characters are always deeply flawed, each in their own particular way.  There is is hope and despondency, rancor and good will, and yet each individual seems to contribute positively to the synergy of the group, producing unexpected outcomes in many cases.

Vonnegut meticulously builds up the layers of his tale, adding twists and turns that surprise or shock the reader. The dialogue is crisp and sharp, enhancing the insights into character and motivation already provided by the narrator. The alternation of narrative between the past and the present keeps the story rolling along while providing welcome respite.

Bluebeard is a reference to the Perrault fairytale about the one forbidden thing.  Apart from giving the book its title, it also provides Vonnegut with a device and a metaphor that runs throughout the novel.

I am  glad I read Bluebeard, and that I left it for last. Despite its dose of existential pessimism (and which of Vonnegut's tales doesn't contain it?), Bluebeard was hopeful enough and well-written enough to provide a pleasing full stop (for now) to my career as an amateur imbiber of Vonnegut novels.