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'''''Kurt Vonnegut''''' ({{thisday|11|November|1922}}—†{{thisday|11|April|2007}}) is an American writer and a top-[[favourite]] author of [[Fabrice]].
 
'''''Kurt Vonnegut''''' ({{thisday|11|November|1922}}—†{{thisday|11|April|2007}}) is an American writer and a top-[[favourite]] author of [[Fabrice]].
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<center><wz tip="Unknown artist's tribute to Vonnegut: fiction more real than reality, or bringing us to Jupiter, if there is something to see there.">[[File:KurtVonnegut-fiction.png|400px]]</wz></center>
 
Favourite works include the everybody's best-loved [[Slaughterhouse 5]], [[Cat's cradle]] and [[the Sirens of Titan]], but one cannot truly enjoy or even understand Vonnegut without reading his other works. Among those, {{I}} have special admiration for [[Breakfast of Champions]], [[Mother Night]], [[Jailbird]] and [[God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater]]. The first book {{I}} read was ''Cat's cradle'', c.&nbsp;[[2010]], which I did not fully understand then. The best first book to read of Vonnegut is probably Slaughterhouse 5 or the Sirens of Titan. I read again Cat's cradle during our [[Icelandic trip (2024)]] and it got me crying.
 
Favourite works include the everybody's best-loved [[Slaughterhouse 5]], [[Cat's cradle]] and [[the Sirens of Titan]], but one cannot truly enjoy or even understand Vonnegut without reading his other works. Among those, {{I}} have special admiration for [[Breakfast of Champions]], [[Mother Night]], [[Jailbird]] and [[God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater]]. The first book {{I}} read was ''Cat's cradle'', c.&nbsp;[[2010]], which I did not fully understand then. The best first book to read of Vonnegut is probably Slaughterhouse 5 or the Sirens of Titan. I read again Cat's cradle during our [[Icelandic trip (2024)]] and it got me crying.
  
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Vonnegut is often hailed for his dark humour, but this is missing the point entirely. Humour is in his work only because humour is everywhere of quality regarding human affairs that are deep enough. Vonnegut is really about humanity. His work describes the grip of man against everything that is inhumane: the violent, the ugly, the painful. For this reason, war has a particularly central role in his work, and his success (from Slaughterhouse 5) is largely due to the anti-war sentiment from the then ongoing Vietnam war, but as for the dark humour, war is an accessory or by-product only of his thinking. Vonnegut is much deeper than that. This is also why many of his novels have a [[science-fiction]] component. A technically minded person (as he was, having a background in biochemistry), he found the real world too narrow to capture the human spirit and had to stretch in both spiritual, religious and science-fiction dimensions to get closer to his subject. It is remarkable how he came to distrust machines and a society of robots (already evident from his very first novel, [[Payer piano]]). In this sense, Vonnegut belongs with Authors like [[Bernanos]], [[Giono]], [[Gheorgiu]] and to a lesser extent, [[Orwell]] and [[Burguess]].
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Vonnegut is often hailed for his dark humour, but this is missing the point entirely. Humour is in his work only because humour is everywhere of quality regarding human affairs that are deep enough. Vonnegut is really about humanity. His work describes the grip of man against everything that is inhumane: the violent, the ugly, the painful. For this reason, war has a particularly central role in his work, and his success (from Slaughterhouse 5) is largely due to the anti-war sentiment from the then ongoing Vietnam war, but as for the dark humour, war is an accessory or by-product only of his thinking. Vonnegut is much deeper than that. This is also why many of his novels have a [[science-fiction]] component. A technically minded person (as he was, having a background in biochemistry), he found the real world too narrow to capture the human spirit and had to stretch in both spiritual, religious and science-fiction dimensions to get closer to his subject. It is remarkable how he came to distrust machines and a society of robots (already evident from his very first novel, [[Payer piano]]). In this sense, Vonnegut belongs with Authors like [[Bernanos]], [[Giono]], [[Gheorgiu]] and to a lesser extent, [[Orwell]] and [[Burgess]].
  
 
== Novels<ref>[https://www.amazon.es/Kurt-Vonnegut-Complete-Library-America/dp/1598535099/ref=sr_1_20?__mk_es_ES=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=1NKMXW7EAFOXG&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.kmf--13lXClJvDS_rEGJahNr-8Mhbwt0qpNJnMsEpaGSG-b5wfqcNGh3yE2j7y6EiXCFe7yCEWAURiCndm_AaPMXsj3erNOPA8hBfjskDLWKeTNwGoYr6_0V15ZdiR2siwnxCmAoWwBBJpTCNA8uUEjauM68IWXZRrMxlvc04qwnwu4oHhZ9dFbrvA3hPF4zYL7e06huy5y6VDkTyJBjoK_5FTP4m7B8bSKxCh9CwmwShUNEY2MSiKVpCBg3Z15eLTJYnFxNOkmyqFovAzR32R6Jz4oxFX-LJU9LckKPFgM.b0wSNs1ikJde5BstxOmZPm5oDxF8q3c8twe8dV9yyFU&dib_tag=se&keywords=timequake&qid=1723983452&sprefix=timequake%2Caps%2C136&sr=8-20#customerReviews Exist as collected works] from the Library of America.</ref> ==
 
== Novels<ref>[https://www.amazon.es/Kurt-Vonnegut-Complete-Library-America/dp/1598535099/ref=sr_1_20?__mk_es_ES=%C3%85M%C3%85%C5%BD%C3%95%C3%91&crid=1NKMXW7EAFOXG&dib=eyJ2IjoiMSJ9.kmf--13lXClJvDS_rEGJahNr-8Mhbwt0qpNJnMsEpaGSG-b5wfqcNGh3yE2j7y6EiXCFe7yCEWAURiCndm_AaPMXsj3erNOPA8hBfjskDLWKeTNwGoYr6_0V15ZdiR2siwnxCmAoWwBBJpTCNA8uUEjauM68IWXZRrMxlvc04qwnwu4oHhZ9dFbrvA3hPF4zYL7e06huy5y6VDkTyJBjoK_5FTP4m7B8bSKxCh9CwmwShUNEY2MSiKVpCBg3Z15eLTJYnFxNOkmyqFovAzR32R6Jz4oxFX-LJU9LckKPFgM.b0wSNs1ikJde5BstxOmZPm5oDxF8q3c8twe8dV9yyFU&dib_tag=se&keywords=timequake&qid=1723983452&sprefix=timequake%2Caps%2C136&sr=8-20#customerReviews Exist as collected works] from the Library of America.</ref> ==
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* ''[[The Sirens of Titan]]'' (1959) {{done|2018}}
 
* ''[[The Sirens of Titan]]'' (1959) {{done|2018}}
 
* ''[[Mother Night]]'' (1962) {{done}}
 
* ''[[Mother Night]]'' (1962) {{done}}
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* ''[[Cat's Cradle]]'' (1963) {{done}}
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* ''[[Cat's Cradle]]'' (1963) {{done|2nd read in August 2024}}
 
* ''[[God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater]]'' (1965) {{done}}
 
* ''[[God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater]]'' (1965) {{done}}
 
* ''[[Slaughterhouse-Five]]'' (1969) {{done}}
 
* ''[[Slaughterhouse-Five]]'' (1969) {{done}}
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* ''[[Deadeye Dick]]'' (1982)
 
* ''[[Deadeye Dick]]'' (1982)
 
* ''[[Galápagos]]'' (1985)
 
* ''[[Galápagos]]'' (1985)
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* ''[[Bluebeard]]'' (1987)
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* ''[[Bluebeard]]'' (1987) {{done|September 2024}}
 
* ''[[Hocus Pocus]]'' (1990)
 
* ''[[Hocus Pocus]]'' (1990)
 
* ''[[Timequake]]'' (1997)
 
* ''[[Timequake]]'' (1997)
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=== Post mortem ===
 
=== Post mortem ===
  
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* ''[[Armageddon in Retrospect]]'' the first posthumous collection of his previously unpublished writing, possibly the most important one too
 
* ''[[Kurt Vonnegut: The Cornell Sun Years 1941–1943]]'' (2012)
 
* ''[[Kurt Vonnegut: The Cornell Sun Years 1941–1943]]'' (2012)
 
* ''[[If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young]]'' (2013)
 
* ''[[If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice to the Young]]'' (2013)
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* ''[[Pity the Reader: On Writing With Style]]'' (2019) with Suzanne McConnell
 
* ''[[Pity the Reader: On Writing With Style]]'' (2019) with Suzanne McConnell
 
* ''[[Love, Kurt: The Vonnegut Love Letters, 1941–1945]]'' (2020) Editor Edith Vonnegut
 
* ''[[Love, Kurt: The Vonnegut Love Letters, 1941–1945]]'' (2020) Editor Edith Vonnegut
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There is a [https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Complete_Stories_(Vonnegut) complete stories] collection (which we own), which content is well detailed on the [[Wikipedia]] (for instance it's missing two stories from [[Welcome to the Monkey House]] or one from [[Armageddon in Retrospect]])
  
 
== References ==
 
== References ==
 
<references />
 
<references />

Latest revision as of 19:56, 7 October 2024

Contents

Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut (11 November (1922)—†11 April (2007)) is an American writer and a top-favourite author of Fabrice.

KurtVonnegut-fiction.png

Favourite works include the everybody's best-loved Slaughterhouse 5, Cat's cradle and the Sirens of Titan, but one cannot truly enjoy or even understand Vonnegut without reading his other works. Among those, I have special admiration for Breakfast of Champions, Mother Night, Jailbird and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. The first book I read was Cat's cradle, c. 2010, which I did not fully understand then. The best first book to read of Vonnegut is probably Slaughterhouse 5 or the Sirens of Titan. I read again Cat's cradle during our Icelandic trip (2024) and it got me crying.

Vonnegut is often hailed for his dark humour, but this is missing the point entirely. Humour is in his work only because humour is everywhere of quality regarding human affairs that are deep enough. Vonnegut is really about humanity. His work describes the grip of man against everything that is inhumane: the violent, the ugly, the painful. For this reason, war has a particularly central role in his work, and his success (from Slaughterhouse 5) is largely due to the anti-war sentiment from the then ongoing Vietnam war, but as for the dark humour, war is an accessory or by-product only of his thinking. Vonnegut is much deeper than that. This is also why many of his novels have a science-fiction component. A technically minded person (as he was, having a background in biochemistry), he found the real world too narrow to capture the human spirit and had to stretch in both spiritual, religious and science-fiction dimensions to get closer to his subject. It is remarkable how he came to distrust machines and a society of robots (already evident from his very first novel, Payer piano). In this sense, Vonnegut belongs with Authors like Bernanos, Giono, Gheorgiu and to a lesser extent, Orwell and Burgess.

Novels[1]

Nonfiction

Post mortem

There is a complete stories collection (which we own), which content is well detailed on the Wikipedia (for instance it's missing two stories from Welcome to the Monkey House or one from Armageddon in Retrospect)

References

  1. ↑ Exist as collected works from the Library of America.
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