Tough-O-Meter

We've got your back. With the Tough-O-Meter, you'll know whether to bring extra layers or Swiss army knives as you summit the literary mountain. (10 = Toughest)

(3) Base Camp

Vonnegut has an important (to him) message, and he wants everyone to be able to read his stories. So, we get very accessible prose. No miles-long paragraphs or shiny Ph.D. words to be found here. Just an inviting, easy climb. So why not sea level?

Well, you young 'uns might have a teeny bit of difficulty, since Vonnegut occasionally name drops a bit of pop culture that would be more familiar someone who actually remembers the sixties.

Also, the novel's fictional religion of Bokononism employs lots of made-up words in its scripture. Vonnegut does a great job of explaining what all these words mean, but they do start to pile up by the end. Confused? Shmoop's here to help. (And we even found you a handy list of the terms. No need to thank us.)