Kurt Vonnegut, Novelist Who Caught the Imagination of His Age, Is Dead at 84

Kurt Vonnegut’s dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died last night in Manhattan. He was 84.

Over the years, I have have read all but the last two of Vonnegut’s novels. I have enjoyed them all for their “dark comic” sensibilities and their underlying “moral tones,” and I am deeply saddened that we will not have another one to read and enjoy (unless, of course, there are unpublished manuscripts laying around - which is very often the case with authors who die nowadays; so maybe I don’t have to be sad after all: in fact, I can look forward to their eventual publication and placement on the various shelves of my library; which, by the way, is spread out all over my house - in it’s various rooms - with no discernable order, rhyme or reason to the shelving scheme).

Now while I have no idea if the punctuation of this run-on sentence is correct (those who know better can submit their corrections in a comment below); said sentence being written in honor of Vonnegut’s most well-known novel: Slaughterhouse Five (Wow, yet another run-on sentence, and I am not finished with it yet); the proper title of which is: Slaughterhouse Five; or, The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., a Fourth-Generation German-American Now Living in Easy Circumstances on Cape Cod (and Smoking Too Much) Who, as an American Infantry Scout Hors de Combat, as a Prisoner of War, Witnessed the Fire-Bombing of Dresden, Germany, the Florence of the Elbe, a Long Time Ago, and Survived to Tell the Tale: This Is a Novel Somewhat in the Telegraphic Schizophrenic Manner of Tales of the Planet Tralfamadore, Where The Flying Saucers Come From

Vonnegut’s other works include

Player Piano. 1952; published as Utopia 14 (1954). Published again as Player Piano, 1966.
The Sirens of Titan. 1959.
Mother Night. 1961. Hardcover edition, 1966.
Cat’s Cradle. 1963.
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater; or, Pearls before Swine. 1965.
Slaughterhouse Five; or, The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death, by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr., a Fourth-Generation German-American Now Living in Easy Circumstances on Cape Cod (and Smoking Too Much) Who, as an American Infantry Scout Hors de Combat, as a Prisoner of War, Witnessed the Fire-Bombing of Dresden, Germany, the Florence of the Elbe, a Long Time Ago, and Survived to Tell the Tale: This Is a Novel Somewhat in the Telegraphic Schizophrenic Manner of Tales of the Planet Tralfamadore, Where the Flying Saucers Come From. 1969. Twenty-fifth anniversary edition, 1994.
Breakfast of Champions; or, Goodbye Blue Monday. 1973.
Slapstick; or, Lonesome No More. 1976.
Jailbird. 1979.
Deadeye Dick. 1982.
Galápagos: A Novel. 1985.
Bluebeard. 1987.
Hocus Pocus. 1990.
Timequake. 1997. (Source for List)

So long Mr. Vonnegut, or as your website so appropriately says:

As the illustrations above and below “illustrate,” Vonnegut was also an artist.

For an interesting post entitled “Kurt Vonnegut Rules,” which can be read in at least two ways, go here. Or to read the Times’ story in full, click the link below.

Source: Kurt Vonnegut, Novelist Who Caught the Imagination of His Age, Is Dead at 84
Originally published on Thu, 12 Apr 2007 05:02:10 GMT by DINITIA SMITH

UPDATE: The blog Today at the Mission has a moving tribute to Vonnegut here. I couldn’t agree with the writer of the post more.

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