As often happens in Vonnegut's novels, there is really only one character (in this case, Rudy Waltz), a narrative voice who ranges back and forth over a given period (his life and those of his parents), describing the other characters, whom the reader rarely confronts directly. Rudy is a failure as a playwright, but he is a good cook, and he spices his narrative with recipes. Rudy settles down to a career as a pharmacist, but he is interrupted at his duties almost nightly by callers asking if he is Deadeye Dick, who accidentally shot a pregnant woman, so he is not allowed to forget his scapegoat fate. Rudy is living in Haiti when he begins to tell his story.

The rest of Rudy's family is as strange as Vonnegut's characters usually are. His father supported his friend Hitler before World War II and is condemned for this...