Best Vonnegut novel recommendation for my 15 year old

[musiclawyer]

A very smart young lady curious about everything. Thanks

[Danger Mouse]

1. Slaughterhouse-5 is the best book I have ever read.

I would start there, if you want to start with the best. Funny and haunting.

[hfojvt]

2. a college librarian told me that he heard once you read one Vonnegut

that you want to read them all. So it may not matter which one is at the beginning.

My personal favorite is Jailbird. It is about a character who is getting out of jail after being convicted during Watergate. Like most Vonnegut it goes forward and backward and this man was also involved in WWII and the McCarthy hearings. At the time of his release many US companies are being bought up by RAMJAC inc. This book brings out alot of themes about government corruption, merger mania, and labor history - bringing in the story of Sacco and Vanzetti and a mythical strike at the Cuyahoga Bridge and Iron Company that 'ends' in a shoot-out.

[zauberflote]

3. Two

"Slaughterhouse Five" is probably the one people will tell you to get, the fictionalization, with a detour to the planet Tralfamadore, of Vonnegut's own experiences as a WWII prisoner of war caught in the middle of the Dresden firebombing. It's great, probably his best.
But, when I was 15 I thought the greatest book ever written, and by that time I had read a lot of Vonnegut, was his "Cat's Cradle." The concept of "ice nine," a material kept locked away because it freezes any water up to 114 degrees it comes in contact with, was too cool for words, literally. So you don't want to let the stuff get to the ocean.
But that was written only a few years before I turned 15 and I haven't been 15 for a long time, so it may not have quite the same resonance it once had.

[sarge43]

4. God Bless You, Mr Rosewater

or you could start her off with some of his short stories, Welcome to the Monkey House.

[HiFructosePronSyrup]

5. Any of them.

I just reread Breakfast of Champions. It's a fine book.

Teenagers especially enjoy that one.

[NightWatcher]

6. Welcome to the Monkeyhouse

She might want to start with one of his short story collections

[mattvermont]

7. Mother Night

[Elidor]

8. When I was 15, Breakfast of Champions blew my mind

I didn't know that people wrote like that. But as an adult I find it to be rather uneven. Cat's Cradle or Slaughterhouse Five would probably be better. Jailbird is also a good read.

And I've often felt that Mother Night was his cleanest work, possibly his best book, with a minimum of whimsy and some very powerful writing, though not as fun as the others.