How does one rate a collection of short stories? Should I rate each story then average them out? Or should I invent some amalgamated, conglomerated, overall valuation based on gut feelings and my present mood? I find it so much easier to rate nonfiction. Nonfiction seems much less arbitrary and capricious.

Here’s the compromise—I’ll list all the stories along with where & when they were originally published. Then, I’ll give the whole thing five stars (because it’s Vonnegut) minus one star (because I don’t want to seem too obsessive).

Thanasphere, Collier's Weekly 1950
The Boy Who Hated Girls,* Saturday Evening Post 1956
Souvenir, Argosy 1952
A Present for Big Nick, Argosy 1954
Custom-Made Bride, Saturday Evening Post 1954
Hal Erwin’s Magic Lamp,* Canary in a Cat House 1957
Lovers Anonymous, Redbook 1963
Bagombo Snuffbox, Cosmopolitan 1954
The Cruise of Jolly Roger, Cape Cod Compass 1953
This Son of Mine…, Saturday Evening Post 1956
2 B R 0 2 B, Worlds of If 1962
The Powder Blue Dragon,* Cosmopolitan 1954

*According to Vonnegut’s coda, both The Boy Who Hated Girls and The Powder Blue Dragon were extensively rewritten before being published in this collection.