A refrigerator salesman and his lovely automaton refrigerator assistant travel around dazzling crowds and selling fridges.

(from While Mortals Sleep)

Jenny was radio-controlled, and those controls were in those trick shoes of George’s — under his toes.

This was an impulse buy. I’ve read pretty much everything in Vonnegut’s bibliography, so I knew I’d pick up While Mortals Sleep eventually, but these posthumous collections give me pause. I’ve found it’s best to go into them knowing that these are often early and lesser works, sillier stuff, sometimes, with lower stakes. “Jenny” fits that mold. It’s got some things to say about how people get attached to non-people, but mostly it’s just a fun little yarn from the, I wanna say, ’60s. Still better than most things in the world.