# Timequake > Mediated Wiki article. Canonical URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Timequake > Markdown URL: https://mediated.wiki/source/Timequake.md > Source: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timequake > Source revision: 1354700994 > License: Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/) 1997 semi-autobiographical work by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Timequake Cover of first edition (hardcover) Author Kurt Vonnegut Language English Genre Semi-autobiographical novel; Fiction Publisher Putnam Publishing Group Publication date September 22, 1997 (1997-09-22) Publication place United States Media type Print (Hardcover & Paperback) Pages 219 ISBN 0-399-13737-8 OCLC 36824733 Dewey Decimal 813/.54 21 LC Class PS3572.O5 T56 1997 ***Timequake*** is a 1997 semi-[autobiographical](/source/Autobiography) work by [Kurt Vonnegut](/source/Kurt_Vonnegut). Marketed as a novel, the book was described as a "stew" by Vonnegut, in which he summarizes a [novel](/source/Novel) he had been struggling with for a number of years.[1] ## Plot summary Vonnegut uses the premise of a timequake (or repetition of actions) in which there is no [free will](/source/Free_will). The idea of [determinism](/source/Determinism) is explored—as it is in many of his previous works—to assert that people really have no free will. [Kilgore Trout](/source/Kilgore_Trout) serves again as the main character, who the author declares as having died in 2001, at the fictitious Xanadu retreat in [Rhode Island](/source/Rhode_Island#In_popular_culture). Vonnegut explains in the beginning of the book that he was not satisfied with the original version of *Timequake* he wrote (or *Timequake One*). Taking parts of *Timequake One* and combining it with personal thoughts and anecdotes produced the finished product, so-called *Timequake Two*. Many of the anecdotes deal with Vonnegut's family, the death of loved ones, and people's last words. The plot, while centered on Trout, is also a sort of ramble in which Vonnegut relays tangents to the plot and comes back dozens of pages later: the timequake has thrust citizens of the year 2001 [back in time](/source/Time_travel) to 1991 to repeat every action they undertook during that time. Most of the small stories in the book expound on the depression and sadness wrought by watching oneself make bad choices: people watch their parents die again, drive drunk or cause accidents that severely injure others. At the end of the timequake, when people resume control, they are depressed and gripped by [ennui](/source/Ennui). Kilgore Trout is the only one not affected by the apathy, and thus helps revive others by telling them, "You were sick, but now you're well, and there's work to do." In the conclusion of this book, a fictionalized Vonnegut (who has inserted himself into the text, something he also did in *[Breakfast of Champions](/source/Breakfast_of_Champions)* and, to a lesser degree, in *[Slaughterhouse-Five](/source/Slaughterhouse-Five)*) meets other authors for a celebration of Trout. The celebration, described as a "[clambake](/source/New_England_clam_bake)," is heavily foreshadowed throughout the novel's previous chapters. ## Style The novel is divided into 63 chapters, seemingly arbitrarily.[2] A new chapter rarely offers any sort of "break" with a previous one; in most cases a thought which was being discussed at the conclusion of the previous chapter continues uninterrupted in the next; chapter breaks are thus used no differently from paragraph breaks. *Timequake*, like many Vonnegut works, features a large number of double-spaced paragraph breaks and triple [asterisks](/source/Asterisk) within each chapter, creating a constant sense of the author pausing between paragraphs.[3] Though his tone is largely cynical throughout *Timequake*, Vonnegut frequently makes use of various light-hearted sayings, such as "Hold on to your hats!" or "Get a load of this!" when segueing between ideas. Several phrases are likewise continually repeated, such as "ting-a-ling" and "he's up in heaven now."[3] Wikiquote has quotations related to ***[Timequake](https://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Special:Search/Timequake)***. ## References 1. **[^](#cite_ref-1)** Sayers, Valerie (September 28, 1997). ["Vonnegut Stew"](https://query.nytimes.com/gst/fullpage.html?res=9804E2D71E38F93BA1575AC0A961958260). *New York Times*. Retrieved May 7, 2007. 1. **[^](#cite_ref-2)** Harper, Howard (2001). [*The Military and Society: Reaching and Reflecting Audiences in Fiction and Film*](https://www.jstor.org/stable/45346872). Vol. 27. pp. 231–248. [ISSN](/source/ISSN_(identifier)) [0095-327X](https://search.worldcat.org/issn/0095-327X). [JSTOR](/source/JSTOR_(identifier)) [45346872](https://www.jstor.org/stable/45346872). 1. ^ [***a***](#cite_ref-Vonnegut1997_3-0) [***b***](#cite_ref-Vonnegut1997_3-1) Vonnegut, Kurt (1997). [*Timequake*](https://archive.org/details/timequake00vonn). New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons. [ISBN](/source/ISBN_(identifier)) [0-399-13737-8](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Special:BookSources/0-399-13737-8). Retrieved July 12, 2025. ## External links v t e Kurt Vonnegut Bibliography Novels Player Piano (1952) The Sirens of Titan (1959) Mother Night (1961) Cat's Cradle (1963) God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965) Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) Breakfast of Champions (1973) Slapstick (1976) Jailbird (1979) Deadeye Dick (1982) Galápagos (1985) Bluebeard (1987) Hocus Pocus (1990) Timequake (1997) Novellas God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian (1999) We Are What We Pretend to Be: The First and Last Works (2013) Collected short fiction Canary in a Cat House (1961) Welcome to the Monkey House (1968) Bagombo Snuff Box (1999) Armageddon in Retrospect (2008) Look at the Birdie (2009) While Mortals Sleep (2011) Sucker's Portfolio (2013) Complete Stories (2017) Short stories "Report on the Barnhouse Effect" (1950) "EPICAC" (1950) "All the King's Horses" (1951) "Tomorrow and Tomorrow and Tomorrow" (1954) "Deer in the Works" (1955) "Miss Temptation" (1956) "Harrison Bergeron" (1961) "Who Am I This Time?" (1961) "2 B R 0 2 B" (1962) "Welcome to the Monkey House" (1968) Collected non-fiction Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974) Palm Sunday (1981) Fates Worse Than Death (1991) A Man Without a Country (2005) Armageddon in Retrospect (2008) Kurt Vonnegut: Letters (2012) If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young (2013) Vonnegut by the Dozen (2013) Plays and screenplays Fortitude (1968) Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1970) Between Time and Timbuktu (1972) Interviews Like Shaking Hands with God (1999) Adaptations Happy Birthday, Wanda June (1971) Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) Between Time and Timbuktu (1972) Next Door (1975) Kurt Vonnegut's God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1979) Slapstick of Another Kind (1982) Who Am I This Time? (1982) Displaced Person (1985) Kurt Vonnegut's Monkey House (1991) Harrison Bergeron (1995) Mother Night (1996) Breakfast of Champions (1999) 2081 (2009) 2BR02B: To Be or Naught to Be (2016) Characters and concepts Kilgore Trout Eliot Rosewater Rabo Karabekian RAMJAC Ilium Granfalloon Tralfamadore Ice-nine Related Kurt Vonnegut Museum and Library Vonnegut (Mercury crater) Family Jill Krementz (second wife) Mark Vonnegut (son) Edith Vonnegut (daughter) Kurt Vonnegut Sr. (father) Bernard Vonnegut (brother) Bernard Vonnegut Sr. (grandfather) Clemens Vonnegut (great-grandfather) Authority control databases Open Library --- Adapted from the Wikipedia article [Timequake](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timequake) by Wikipedia contributors ([contributor history](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timequake?action=history)). Available under [Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 4.0 International](https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/4.0/). Changes may have been made.