Hocus Pocus (book)

Hocus Pocus is a 1990 novel by Kurt Vonnegut. Its main character is Vietnam War veteran and college professor Eugene Debs Hartke, who comes to the realization that he has killed exactly as many people as the number of women he had sex with. In an editor's note at the beginning of the book, Vonnegut himself claims to have found hundreds of differently sized scraps of paper, from wrapping paper to business cards, sequentially numbered by the author (Debs) in order to form a narrative of some kind. This theme of an episodic narrative and scraps of information is echoed in one recurring feature of the novel, a computer program called GRIOT. By inputting certain characteristics of a person's life and current situation, the program can give an approximation of what sort of life that person might have had based on the database of lives the program can access. The main pieces of information required for GRIOT to work are: age, race, degree of education, and drug use.

Related Topics:
1990 - Kurt Vonnegut - Vietnam War - Professor

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Eugene's college is held hostage by recently escaped prisoners from a near-by prison. Having volunteered many hours of his time at the jail, he becomes the spiritual leader for the society formed between the staff and former prisoners.

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Like almost all of Vonnegut's books, this is an account told in the past-tense by a character who shares his background with Vonnegut. It is also suggested that it mirrors some parts of the Attica Prison riots.

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