Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. (Vol. 2) - Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. 1922–2007
Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. 1922–2007
An American novelist and fantasy writer, Vonnegut is the author of Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five, and Breakfast of Champions. He is also well known for his humorously pessimistic commentary on contemporary American life. (See also Contemporary Authors, Vols. 1-4, rev. ed.)
Vonnegut belongs with the desperate humorists, of whom Joseph Heller, author of Catch-22, is the best known. Donald Barthelme, Bruce J. Friedman, and Richard Stern are of that company. John Hawkes can also be funny in the same way, though he has other virtues that are more important. Vonnegut's particular asset is the wildness of his imagination: there is nothing so ridiculous that he cannot make use of it. And, though one doesn't have to regard him as an infallible prophet, he has put his finger on an essential problem of our times.
Granville Hicks, in Saturday Review (copyright © 1965...
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