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Kurt Vonnegut's latest book, a collection of essays rather than the fiction he's known for, is at turns illuminating, maddening, and depressing, very much like the fiction he's known for. Vonnegut is focused on his advancing years here, and he comes perilously close to sounding like a grumpy old man. Every time he does, however, he manages to throw in an unexpected zinger of crystalline prose that--agree with him or not--makes you want to jot the passage down for posterity. Pieces like: Human beings are chimpanzees who get crazy drunk on power. By saying that our leaders are power-drunk chimpanzees, am I in danger of wrecking the morale of our soldiers fighting and dying in the Middle East? Their morale, like so many bodies, is already shot to pieces. They are being treated, as I never was, like toys a rich kid got for Christmas. This from a WWII infantryman and POW who famously lived through the firebombing of Dresden and wrote about it in Slaughterhouse-Five, my favorite Vonnegut novel. He's pissed off and in full-on man without a country rant. But just when he gets you wound up and fed up, he hits you with this: When you get to my age, if you get to my age, which is 81, and if you have reproduced, you will find yourself asking your own children, who are themselves middle-aged, what life is all about ... I put my big question about life to my biological son Mark. Mark is a pediatrician ... Dr. Vonnegut said this to his doddering old dad: Father, we are here to help each other get through this thing, whatever it is. So I pass that on to you. Write it down, and put it in your computer, so you can forget it. He gives you Candide's laughter in the face of tragedy--he mentions Voltaire's work in the book--and its deep satire and irony as so few have managed since. It's a quick read, and worth the ride.Read full review
This nonfiction title is the last of Vonnegut's books intentionally written for publication by the other, nonfiction, fiction, or otherwise. That is, and I'm hoping, in the future, there will be published other works of Vonnegut, which he had not previously published. After all, before he died recently, Vonnegut was often called the "greatest living American author." Now that he has passed away, he joins an enormous list of classic American authors, known for a style found nowhere else in the world. As mentioned, this is a work of nonfiction, mostly autobiographical, though some contains rants and other opinion pieces. Vonnegut wrote several books of this nature. This one covers much of the major events of his life, as well as much of his personal philosophy and worldview. One thing you can be sure, Vonnegut does not hold back on anything. Written with the simple, intentional, and very precise language his readers have come to admire him for, Vonnegut finishes a great list of masterpieces with this, A Man Without a Country, which also contains some of his famous line-drawings, as well as individual "blue pages between each chapter," each which includes a joke from Vonnegut. As usual, the book is only mid-sized in number of pages and the text is fairly large. Overall, there is nothing out of the ordinary, when it comes to Vonnegut's other books. You can easily search for a description of the individual chapters to see exactly what topics he chose to include in this publication. The purpose of my review, instead, was to inform you, the potential buyer/reader, of how it is written. However, I will say that one of the chapters includes some of Vonnegut's memories and comments on the WWII Dresden air-raid, of which he was only one of a handful of survivors, linking up to how he ended up writing in the first place (and his opinion on those who consider him sci-fi) and his first internationally renown work, Slaughterhouse Five. That said, if you are particularly interested in his nonfiction comps, or if you would like to add Vonnegut's final work to your collection, this is a must buy.Read full review
I'm not sure why this book was even published. At 150 pages, with a lot of pictures and blank pages, it just isn't worth buying. It seems like a cynical exercise to make an extra buck or two off the litmaster's good name. Get it from the library and read it in one or two days. Only those who must have a copy of every little thing Vonnegut wrote need apply. Vonnegut doesn't say anything here he doesn't say in his novels except his cynicism and disapproval are directly aimed at the Bush administration instead of life in general. One last shot across the bow from a tired old writer. Criticizing the Bush administration is like shooting fish in a barrel these days and nearly everyone seems to be shooting the limit. If you must have Vonnegut's 2 cents, then by all means.
OK..This is Vonnegut getting mad and getting Political...So, depending on one your Point of View, the Politics may either get in the way or have one cheering...But it will never leave the reader feeling neutral. Vonnegut uses the badges he earned the hard way: as a soldier in WWII, a POW in an unimaginably horrible German POW camp and his witnessing the carnage during the Allied bombing of Dresden while incarcerated there in a Slaughterhouse...all of these events in his life and more entitle him to comment on the State of The World and the role which Politics plays in shaping its destiny. He asks, simply: Have we learned ANYTHING from our past? The reader will either like the book or hate it, but will also appreciate Mr. Vonnegut's frustration with the refusal of too many of our leaders to even peek at the pages of history, no less LEARN anything from them. Mr. Vonnegut deserves to air his thoughts here...He did not raise his children to be cannon fodder, and his protective and loving attitude towards Humanity, as well as his anger with Those In Power who Really Should Know BETTER is clearly evident here. I say, let him try to stop futility: He, above all, knew it to be a useless and thankless task: but somebody had to do it...Someone had to take the moral high road as he saw it, war after war after war...One thing is clear from this book: Mr. Vonnegut left us with his true legacy: NOT a number, as he implied in his book Hocus Pocus, but an admonition, made by at least One person over 2000 years ago...Let us Live to Love One Another.No one can argue with that as A Good Idea for words to live by.Read full review
One of Vonnegut's better books, within an already wonderful collection of works. This one is full of allegories especially poignant in this time in history. Condition of the book is very good/excellent. Fast arrival.
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
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