#44 in Humour
Galápagos
- 295
- Pages
- about 5 h
- Reading time
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Our view
“Galápagos” is Vonnegut’s bleakly funny reckoning with our species, and a novel that divides readers by the way it is told. A ghost narrates across a million years and gives away each turn of the plot long before it arrives; what remains is the voice and the Darwinian joke at the expense of the human brain. Several readers find that method repetitive and slow, among them some who usually enjoy his books.
The view of the BookRank editors, written from readers’ ratings and comments. It does not affect the score or the book’s place in a ranking.
About the book
Galápagos is a 1985 satirical science fiction novel by the American author Kurt Vonnegut, his eleventh published novel. Set in the Galápagos Islands after a global financial disaster, the novel questions the merit of the human brain from an evolutionary perspective. The title is both a reference to the islands on which part of the story plays out, and a tribute to Charles Darwin, on whose theory Vonnegut relies to reach his own conclusions. It was published by Delacorte Press.
Where the score comes from
The sources average 7.6 across 311 ratings — not yet many, so the reader vote carries 68% of the weight and the rest pulls toward the Humour average of 7.8. That is how 7.7 comes out.
| Source | Average | Ratings | Weight |
|---|---|---|---|
| Open Library | 7.8 | 24 | 8% |
| Hardcover | 7.6 | 287 | 92% |
Frequently asked
How long is Galápagos?
It has 295 pages — shorter than 81% of the ranked books in Humour.
In this book
Themes this book shares with others — each leads to the best books on it.
If you liked this
Same shelf — Humour — with scores between 7.7 and 8.6, closest to this book.
