Kurt Vonnegut’s humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America’s attention in The Sirens of Titan in 1959 and established him as “a true artist” (The New York Times) with Cat’s Cradle in 1963. He was, as Graham Greene declared, “one of the best living American writers.” Mr. Vonnegut passed away in April 2007.
“Poignant and hilarious, threaded with compassion and, behind
everything, the cataract of a thundering moral
statement.”—The Boston Globe
“Very tough and very funny . . . sad and delightful . . . very
Vonnegut.”—The New York Times
“Splendid . . . a funny book at which you are not permitted to
laugh, a sad book without tears.”—Life
“Funny, satirical, compelling, outrageous, fanciful, mordant,
fecund . . . ‘It’s too good to be science fiction,’ [the
critics] would say. But Vonnegut doesn’t care, and you won’t care,
either, because this is a writer who leaps over genres.”—Los
Angeles Times
"Poignant and hilarious, threaded with compassion and, behind
everything, the cataract of a thundering moral
statement."-The Boston Globe
"Very tough and very funny . . . sad and delightful . . .
very Vonnegut."-The New York Times
"Splendid . . . a funny book at which you are not permitted
to laugh, a sad book without tears."-Life
"Funny, satirical, compelling, outrageous, fanciful, mordant,
fecund . . . 'It's too good to be science fiction,' [the critics]
would say. But Vonnegut doesn't care, and you won't care, either,
because this is a writer who leaps over genres."-Los Angeles
Times
Drawing on Vonnegut's own experience as a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany, Slaughterhouse-Five is an absurdist time-travel story in which mild-mannered Billy Pilgrim is jerked back and forth between past and future. As a soldier during World War II, he is taken prisoner by the Germans and sent to Dresden, where he witnesses the Allied firebombing that killed more people than the atom bomb that was later dropped on Hiroshima. In the future, Billy is put on display as an alien specimen in a remote planet's zoo. Despite its absurdities, the novel is anchored in the grim reality of the pointless destruction of Dresden. Slaughterhouse is a powerful and popular work that is sure to attract many listeners; it is therefore a shame that actor Ethan Hawke's narration is not stronger. His reading is tolerable, but much of it is in a conspiratorial whisper that sounds as if Hawke were reading a bedtime story to children. Still, recommended.-R. Kent Rasmussen, Thousand Oaks, CA Copyright 2004 Reed Business Information.
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