Kurt Vonnegut, R.I.P.
Legendary American novelist Kurt Vonnegut died at the age of 84:
Mr. Vonnegut wrote plays, essays and short fiction. But it was his novels that became classics of the American counterculture, making him a literary idol, particularly to students in the 1960s and ’70s. Dog-eared paperback copies of his books could be found in the back pockets of blue jeans and in dorm rooms on campuses throughout the United States.
Like Mark Twain, Mr. Vonnegut used humor to tackle the basic questions of human existence: Why are we in this world? Is there a presiding figure to make sense of all this, a god who in the end, despite making people suffer, wishes them well?
He also shared with Twain a profound pessimism. “Mark Twain,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote in his 1991 book, “Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage,” “finally stopped laughing at his own agony and that of those around him. He denounced life on this planet as a crock. He died.”
Sadly for me, I have never dove into any of Vonnegut’s novels or short stories. (Seeing the size of my must-read list you’d understand.) I think I’d enjoy his dark humor and mind-bending universes and could probably ignore his Left-wing politics.
Editor & Publisher has excerpts from a 1974 Vonnegut interview. His humor is immediately evident.
“Kurt Vonnegut Dies at 84″
“Kurt Vonnegut Dies At Age 84″
