Galapagos
By Kurt Vonnegut
Was in the mood for some wry absurdism, so I picked up a Vonnegut book I'd never read before. It's a
meditation of sorts on evolution. We often think, of course, that we humans are the most highly evolved species, what with our big brains and whatnot. But in Galapagos, Vonnegut, writing as a wandering spirit 1 million years in the future, these big brains are actually the evolutionary mutation that brings about our downfall. It is the cause of a financial crisis, unnecessarily made by big brains, that wipes out all of humanity -- except for a small colony of humans that accidentally ends up shipwrecked on a deserted Galapagos island. There they evolve away from these big brains and back into animals whose sole focus is on survival. It is a simpler way of life -- though, as the narrator points out, no human in a million years would have the capacity to reflect on that.
It was good to revisit Vonnegut, like seeing an old friend after some time. It didn't quite pack the humorous punch as some of his other books, but a good read nonetheless.
