Cat’s Cradle
(Kurt Vonnegut)

John is a writer who began to write a book about the day the bomb was dropped on Hiroshima. He set out to interview his friends, the Hoenikker children, about their father Felix who was responsible for inventing the bomb. He also interviewes a man named Asa Breed who worked in Felix’s lab; Asa tells him about an isotope Felix supposedly created called “ice-nine” which has the power to, at a drop, turn anything consisting of water into ice. After John sees an ad for an island called San Lorenzo he knows he must go there; he falls in love with the girl, Mona, from the ads. Also, Frank Hoenikker lives there, though everyone thinks him dead. He takes a job writing about a man named Julian Castle who built a hospital on the island.

Once he arrives on the island John finds out about the illegal religion of the native, Bokononism, which nearly everyone practices, though not publically. It was the work of a man named Bokonon who arrived on the island years ago with his friend McCabe who took over the government; now Mona’s adoptive father “Papa” Monzano is in charge. Monzano is dying, and Frank is expected to become the next president and marry Mona. But Frank does not want such a public role due to his social anxiety, so he offers the job, and Mona, to John. On the day that John is to announce his presidency Monzano kills himself with ice-nine from Frank Hoenikker, and his body helps to spread the ice-nine all over, essentially killing everyone except for a handful of people. John decides “Cat’s Cradle”, the story of Bokononism and ice-nine, will make a better book so he begins to write.