While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction by Kurt Vonnegut

Feb 29, 2012 MJ Nicholls rated it 1 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: merkins, short-stories, the-art-of-loathing

Lordy, why were these stories published? This is buried-in-the-bottom-drawer stuff, early examples of competence in the writing-for-slicks-and-glossies side of Kurt’s career. There were two sides to Kurt in the fifties and sixties: one was the knockout novelist who wrote prophetic, visionary, hilarious, moving and perfect books of permanence that no one noticed until Slaughterhouse V. Then there was the hack who wrote formulaic stories to keep his family in shoes, clothes and Drano. And I confes...more

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Apr 26, 2012 soul rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Много радваща книга с ранни, неиздавани досега разкази. Един много различен Вонегът и все пак така очарователен, увлекателен и добър в разнищването на душата. Силна доза хумор, омесен с човечност, тъга, самота и няколко щипки абсурд.
Горещо я препоръчвам.

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May 12, 2013 Leon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Foreword by Dave Eggers

Smart, whimsical, and often scathing, the fiction of Kurt Vonnegut influenced a generation of American writers—including Dave Eggers, author of this volume’s Foreword. In these previously unpublished gems, Vonnegut’s originality infuses a unique landscape of factories, trailers, and bars—and characters who pit their dreams and fears against a cruel and sometimes comically indifferent world.

Here are stories of men and machines, art and artifice, and how ideals of fortune

...more

Foreword by Dave Eggers

Smart, whimsical, and often scathing, the fiction of Kurt Vonnegut influenced a generation of American writers—including Dave Eggers, author of this volume’s Foreword. In these previously unpublished gems, Vonnegut’s originality infuses a unique landscape of factories, trailers, and bars—and characters who pit their dreams and fears against a cruel and sometimes comically indifferent world.

Here are stories of men and machines, art and artifice, and how ideals of fortune, fame, and love take curious twists in ordinary lives. An ambitious builder of roads, commanding an army of bulldozers, graders, and asphalt spreaders, fritters away his free time with miniature trains—until the women in his life crash his fantasy land. Trapped in a stenography pool, a young dreamer receives a call from a robber on the run, who presents her with a strange proposition. A crusty newspaperman is forced onto a committee to judge Christmas displays—a job that leads him to a suspiciously ostentatious ex-con and then a miracle. A hog farmer’s widow receives cryptic, unsolicited letters from a man in Schenectady about “the indefinable sweet aches of the spirit.” But what will she find when she goes to meet him in the flesh?

These beautifully rendered works are a testament to Vonnegut’s unique blend of observation and imagination. Like a present left behind by a departed loved one, While Mortals Sleep bestows upon us a shimmering Kurt Vonnegut gift: a poignant reflection of our world as it is and as it could be.

From Publishers Weekly

The 16 previously unpublished short stories of this collection, taken from the beginning of Vonnegut's career, show a young author already grappling with themes and ideas that would define his work for decades to come. "Girl Pool" features typist Amy Lou Little, employee of the Kafkaesque Montezuma Forge and Foundry Company, who is tasked with transcribing a plea for help she receives on her Dictaphone from an escaped, dying murderer hiding somewhere in the works of the company's cavernous factory. The tale reveals Vonnegut investigating one of his recurring themes: the isolation brought by technology and the necessity for basic humanity in the workplace. The title story melds a sentimental meditation on the true meaning of Christmas with elements of the mystery genre as a hard-nosed reporter stalks the story of stolen nativity scene characters. While these early stories show an author still testing the boundaries of his craft and obsessions, Vonnegut's acute moral sense and knack for compelling prose are very much on display. In the foreword, Dave Eggers calls Vonnegut "a hippie Mark Twain," which perfectly captures an essential truth about this esteemed author. (Jan.) (c)
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

Early in his career, before he fused his satirical wit and world-weary intellect in the distinctive, quasi-sf style of Cat’s Cradle (1963) and Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Vonnegut wrote short stories for mainstream publications, such as Collier’s and The Saturday Evening Post. The 16 unpublished stories in this collection were either not submitted or not accepted, although it is easy to imagine them appearing in those contexts. Tightly and crisply written, they concern cynical newspapermen and the spirit of Christmas (“While Mortals Sleep”), practical jokes taken too far (“Bomar”), the self-sacrifice of a pregnant widow (“Ruth”)—he had lived through the firebombing of Dresden but had not yet explored it in fiction. There are foreshadowings of Vonnegut the cynical sage, however, in “With His Hand on the Throttle,” when a woman dive-bombs her grown son’s overgrown train layout; in “Tango,” when libidinous dancing disrupts a WASP-y enclave; and in “Girl Pool,” in which alienation arrives via the Dictaphone. As in Look at the Birdie (2009), these stories, while clearly seminal, constitute a worthwhile contribution to the author’s oeuvre. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The legendary author’s death in 2007 means an eventual end to unpublished writings, and Vonnegut fans have read all their old paperbacks to tatters. --Keir Graff

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Mar 16, 2013 John Beck rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: reviewed, fiction

http://andalittlewine.blogspot.com/2012/12/book-review-while-mortals-sleep-by-ku...

2012 has been my year for Vonnegut. I've re-read 2 of his books (Breakfast of Champions, which was my introduction to Vonnegut years ago, and Man Without A Country), and I read a fun little book of Vonnegut criticism.

So on a recent roadtrip, I was excited to bring along the audiobook of While Mortals Sleep, the recently released, previously unpublished Vonnegut short story collection.

(A note:
These are stories that...more http://andalittlewine.blogspot.com/2012/12/book-review-while-mortals-sleep-by-ku...

2012 has been my year for Vonnegut. I've re-read 2 of his books (Breakfast of Champions, which was my introduction to Vonnegut years ago, and Man Without A Country), and I read a fun little book of Vonnegut criticism.

So on a recent roadtrip, I was excited to bring along the audiobook of While Mortals Sleep, the recently released, previously unpublished Vonnegut short story collection.

(A note:
These are stories that were never published while Vonnegut was alive, though many of them were submitted for publication. As with the works of JRR Tolkien that never saw the light of day, I think we have to approach them fully conscious that the author may not have been done with them, that the author may have even preferred [since there was ample opportunity to repurpose them into a collection] that they never be published. That said, as with Kafka, while we recognize that the works are not as the author may have intended, they exist as the author created them.

So I can't read a posthumous collection and level against it the same criticism I would against one of the collections Vonnegut published in his lifetime. If there are flaws, at least some of the fault lies with the publisher and with the author's estate).

The collection was uneven, and very different from the Vonnegut I love- the Vonnegut who wrote Slaughterhouse Five and Slapstick and Breakfast of Champions wrote science fiction that bordered on magical realism infused with a deep metatextualness. Those were stories about story telling, about the delusions of culture and the value of culture and family that can be obscured if we don't take proper care of each other, about how the world grinds away our effort to be rational but how to love being alive anyways.

There were glimpses of that Vonnegut here- in one fable, two painters duel. One, an abstract expressionist is commercially unsuccessful but critically lauded, while the other, a photographic realist, is the reverse. Goaded to duel by their loving but petty wives, each artist has one night to adopt the other's style.

Like characters in an O'Henry story, the artists are of course unable to stop their preferred mode from seeping through. In despair, they trade works, an act of willing plagiarism and self-denial. And of course, the world heaps the missing element onto each painters work in the form of either praise or purchase.

The themes are distinctly Vonnegut's, but his style is still taking shape. His characters are more rounded, more human than the ones I love from his novels. In that, I can't help finding them to be less than I would wish for. But, that may be because I would wish for a new novel, knowing that there will never be another.(less)

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Feb 15, 2011 EZRead eBookstore rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: jenifer-reviews

There are 16 short stories in “While Mortals Sleep,” and I really loved all of them. I’m not afraid to climb on top of one of those old trick planes and wave a banner from the sky: “I NO LONGER THINK KURT VONNEGUT IS JUST OKAY….HE IS WONDERFUL!”

In all wickedness, I had only read “Slaughterhouse-Five” as my Kurt Vonnegut read beforehand. He seems to be touted by most everyone, but is especially praised by post-students who thought their assigned school reading (and nothing else) was “far out”. S...more

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Jul 02, 2011 Chris Remo rated it 3 of 5 stars

Since Kurt Vonnegut’s death, there have been three volumes of previously unpublished Vonnegut short fiction. I didn’t bother with them initially, because I don’t gravitate to short stories to begin with, and on top of that I figured the posthumously published leftovers probably weren’t the cream of the crop.

But recently it struck me that we won’t be getting any more genuinely new Vonnegut material ever (not the first time that realization has come to me as if it were a new discovery), so when I...more Since Kurt Vonnegut’s death, there have been three volumes of previously unpublished Vonnegut short fiction. I didn’t bother with them initially, because I don’t gravitate to short stories to begin with, and on top of that I figured the posthumously published leftovers probably weren’t the cream of the crop.

But recently it struck me that we won’t be getting any more genuinely new Vonnegut material ever (not the first time that realization has come to me as if it were a new discovery), so when I saw a hardcover edition of While Mortals Sleep in my local bookstore, I picked it up.

While Mortals Sleep is the third and latest of these attempts to scrounge any more material out of the Vonnegut name, so it is essentially the leftovers of the leftovers.

As David Eggers explains in a foreword that is itself a worthwhile read, the material is drawn from early in Vonnegut’s career, before he came to real acclaim (though individual stories unfortunately aren’t individually dated). It is surprisingly blunt—nearly every piece wraps up with a neat lesson, often a reproach of unrestrained capitalistic greed, an exaltation of individualism, or a reminder of the value of compassion and companionship.

Vonnegut never bothered to disguise his worldview. But while his great novels were always moral, they were rarely had a moral like these stories do. In that sense, reading through this collection was instructive. Before Vonnegut really became the Vonnegut we know, before he could weave his ideals into his structure-defying, often sci-fi-tinged and dystopian works, he hammered them out in these brief allegories. (Only one story, “Jenny,” about a feminine robot built into a refrigerator—yes—really shares the sci-fi-abusing tendencies of many of Vonnegut’s novels.)

There’s plenty of his characteristic easy prose, the unfussy eloquence that defines Vonnegut’s style throughout his career. And this early work gives a wonderful perspective on what followed. Unfortunately, while several of the stories are great, the majority of them are essentially simple morality plays, and at times I found it difficult to feel any real sense of real edification. As Eggers points out, Vonnegut was really writing for the 1950s magazine editors he hoped would accept his submissions, so the tone is understandable, even if it can’t stand the test of time like his great works.

The standout exception for me in that regard—the monumental, wonderful exception—is the final inclusion, “The Humbugs.” It tells the story of two working artists whose studios face each other across the street.

One is an aging and commercially successful painter of lush but soulless pastoral landscapes, an impressive literary prediction of Thomas Kinkade; he receives no recognition from the critical community, and he holds a secret contempt for his own creative bankruptcy.

The other is a young, dynamic abstractionist, whose paintings the public finds uncomfortable and alienating, who is on the constant brink of financial ruin despite critical adoration of his work’s emotional breadth; he harbors a deep insecurity about his inability to depict the world the way the human eye perceives it.

A confrontation ensues between the two, making for one of the most wonderful portrayals of creative self-doubt and triumph I have encountered. It was a daring move to require readers to get through an entire book’s worth of material before reaching what is clearly the strongest piece, but what an ending.

(Before publishing this post I did a quick Google search for “While Mortals Sleep” and discovered that Amazon has nonsensically categorized the book as “Science Fiction & Fantasy”—a label Vonnegut spent a lifetime trying to escape. The guy just can’t catch a break.)(less)

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Apr 08, 2013 Leah rated it 4 of 5 stars

This collection of short stories hit me right between the eyes...with lessons. The last three or four books that I have read have been nonfictional/useful content, but it felt so good to get my hands on some fiction again. Since it's hard to really sum up what this collection as a whole did to me, I'm going to express what some of the individual stories did for me.

"Jenny" taught me that dedication in romance can go too far and cause a very unhealthy lifestyle.

"With His Hand on the Throttle" taug...more

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Aug 27, 2011 Heather rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kurt Vonnegut was unquestionably my favorite author when I was in high school. My most beloved English teacher, the grey-bearded Mr. Hansen (who somewhat resembled an Anglo-Saxon vision of God, if God wore Hawaiian shirts and linen shorts in the summertime), wrote something in my yearbook about how I had a Vonnegut-like sensibility. Nothing could've made me more proud. It's been years since I read anything by the man, though, and when my friend Lauren recommended this collection, I put it on hol...more Kurt Vonnegut was unquestionably my favorite author when I was in high school. My most beloved English teacher, the grey-bearded Mr. Hansen (who somewhat resembled an Anglo-Saxon vision of God, if God wore Hawaiian shirts and linen shorts in the summertime), wrote something in my yearbook about how I had a Vonnegut-like sensibility. Nothing could've made me more proud. It's been years since I read anything by the man, though, and when my friend Lauren recommended this collection, I put it on hold at the library right away. I am particularly fond of short stories and deeply adore Welcome to the Monkey House; Lauren said this would be right up my alley.

She's right, that girl. How did I manage to allow it to be this long since I last read something from KV? I won't be foolish enough to make that mistake in the future. While I'm not usually enamored of forewords, I particularly enjoyed this one. Dave Eggers sets up the volume, a posthumously printed collection of works KV had published in various magazines and journals, rather brilliantly. His main argument is that the world needs (and is currently lacking) storytellers like KV, who was an unabashedly moral voice. His stories frequently have a very clear moral, he is quite often trying to teach his reader something about what it means to be good or kind or right (or at least not ridiculous and selfish). Eggers argues that the world is full of opinionated people who have a lot to say about right and wrong but the loudest of these voices are usually on the fringe and (my words) somewhat deranged. Story writers, on the other hand, have learned to avoid telling people what is right and wrong, to remain a nonjudgmental voice. And while there's a place for everything, the spot occupied by writers like KV lately remains fairly empty.

But on to the stories. Vonnegut has a way of turning ordinary situations extraordinary while still keeping them grounded. Where else would you read a story about a man who travels the country shilling appliances by showing off a custom fridge he built to resemble his ex-wife (complete with blinking eyes, blushing skin, and skills on the dance floor) and come away with a story about the dangers of idolizing our loves and not seeing them for the imperfect people they really are? Goddamnit, Kurt Vonnegut, you've done it again.

If you're the sort of person who didn't hate "A Long Walk to Forever," a somewhat romantic and mysteriously divisive story from Welcome to the Monkey House, this is going to be right up your alley, as it was mine.(less)

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Nov 29, 2012 Mike rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-drama-poetry, short-stories, the-1950s, z-read-in-2012

When I finished this and tabulated my ratings of the individual stories, I was surprised to find that it came out to an average per story of only 3.37. Because I enjoyed so many of these immensely. I guess the aggregate rating was skewed downward by a few stinkers and a few mediocrities.

So I'm giving it 4 stars.

Because I figure, in the big scheme of things, what's the loss if you spend 20 minutes of your life reading a short story that turns out not to be too good, compared to the gain of spen...more

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Mar 23, 2013 Gwenanne Edwards rated it 4 of 5 stars

The early Vonnegut stories are generally optimistic and have definitive (typically Vonnegut) yet positive endings. There is little satire unlike his later works, which is refreshing, but let's be honest, that's what we like best about Vonnegut. The stories are still imbued with with a moral message, but they are harder to swallow when not taken with a dose of cynicism.

Dave Eggers wrote a thoughtful forward, worth it in itself to pick up the book. An excerpt - "In any case, no matter what the pl...more

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Feb 16, 2011 Linh Hoang rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: advisory

This review has been hidden because it contains spoilers. To view it, click here.

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Apr 06, 2011 Bookmarks Magazine rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: may-june-2011

While most reviewers considered these stories, written to meet the expectations of a bygone era, quaint and nostalgic if nonetheless still relevant to our times, a few found their emphasis on plot twists and explicit morals passé. All, however, agreed that Vonnegut’s dry and unassuming tone, unadorned prose, and unique vision of life are evident even at this early stage in his career. For most, this was reason enough to pay tribute to and recommend this posthumous collection. Vonnegut’s enduring...more

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Feb 13, 2012 Chickens McShiterson rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: own

Full disclosure: I am biased with Kurt.
However...
There is little more satisfying than a well-written short story. In his collection Bagombo Snuff Box, Vonnegut outlined the necessary elements of a successful short story. This early collection sees him simultaneously obey and break the rules he later set forth, with gleeful abandon and his usual irreverence. Most of the stories in Where Mortals Sleep are of a fairly straightforward fare and highlight a burgeoning genius of the literary world. In...more

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May 01, 2012 Dale Gomez rated it 4 of 5 stars

Kurt Vonnegut is known for being a moralistic writer and this collection of stories seems to highlight that in very simple terms. As you read the stories you get an image of him shaking an accusatory finger at which ever character is behaving badly, but in the end leaving that character pitiful in their self made misery. The day I took this book out of the library I also rented The Girl with the Dragon Tatoo movie (most recent English version). Mikal (sp?) who was in a self imposed withdraw from...more

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Nov 13, 2012 Simone Subliminalpop rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Raccolta uscita postuma che comprende alcuni tra i primi racconti della lunga e corposa carriera letteraria di Vonnegut. Come dice lo stesso Eggers nella prefazione, siamo ancora distanti dallo spessore di romanzi successivi come Mattatoio n. 5 o Ghiacco-Nove, non per questo però si tratta di un brutto libro o così avulso da quell’immenso scrittore (e uomo) che è destinato a diventare Vonnegut.
Certo, non tutti i racconti sono perfetti o così acuti (tra i migliori: “Con la mano sull’acceleratore”...more

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Jan 29, 2012 Romy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: short-stories, read-2012, 2010s

I'd never read any of Vonnegut's short stories before (nor, for that matter, have I read many of his novels), but this seemed like as good a place as any to start. After reading Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle I have come to know Vonnegut as a darkly satirical writer, but this collection shows a lighter side of his work. While all the tales have something to teach you, they are overall still optimistic - admittedly it was a sigh of relief after reading a collection of Richard Yates's storie...more

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Oct 26, 2011 Jake Kilroy rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

In the introduction, Dave Eggers addresses Vonnegut as a moral compass of the last two generations. And Eggers may be right, but in such an obscure, wacky way that it's sort of hard to tell.

Vonnegut's short stories offer characters with insight and insanity, so they exist as mild fantasy characters living out their crazy existence in the real world. Vonnegut's real world has almost-magic and almost-surrealism. But it always falls short (purposefully, of course), so that the peculiar tale comes t...more

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May 16, 2011 Stewart rated it 4 of 5 stars

I really enjoyed this collection of early, previous unpublished short stories. This early Vonnegut is every bit as much the moralizer that he remained throughout his life, but without quite the masterful imaginativeness of his major works. Little sign of hallmark smug angry bitterness. I can only surmise Vonnegut never published these stories in his lifelime because they seem a bit sentimental, if not "cute", and lack the sophistication of his later writing. But I loved these stories. My friends...more

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Aug 23, 2012 David McCann rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Any time I read a novel or short story collection of Kurt Vonnegut's, I know what to expect. First of all, I know that I'm going to enjoy it. I know that there'll be pretty simple prose, I know there'll be tight plotting, I know the protagonist will often feel like a minor character, and I know that there'll be a moralistic ideal in there somewhere.

In that regard, While Mortals Sleep does not disappoint. Despite not being his best effort, this collection of short stories is engaging, filled with...more

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Aug 03, 2011 Robyn rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

Ohhhh man. I'm in love with this man. The amount of books he's written that I've read is slowly dwindling down to just a handful. It's a very sad realization that I won't ever get to read something new from his beautiful mind... Maybe people will keep pulling out unpublished stories of his and putting them together :)

Anyway, this book is wonderful. I have been reading each short story as slowly as I might savor each bite of a perfectly grilled steak.

My favorite story so far is "Out, Brief Candl...more

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Feb 20, 2011 Frank rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: short-stories

Or, as my daughter called it, the Eyeball Book...and then was disappointed in the incongruous lack of said eyeballs.

As for me, no complaints about any "new" Vonnegut (love how the dead are more prolific than me). Typically, I don't read entire short stories collections, but I rode this all the way through. More so than in "Look at the Birdie," his later voice can be heard in these early stories, particularly in the wry dialogue. "Tango" and "The Humbugs" stood out for me, though I don't doubt th...more

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Jul 30, 2011 John Pappas added it

This collection of early Vonnegut stories centers mainly on his usual motifs (technology and money as causes of human alienation) but is geared toward the audiences he was hoping to entertain in the beginning of his burgeoning career -- readers of the magazines he attempted to sell these stories to: Ladies Home Journal, etc. As a result, they are a bit more sentimental and formulaic than his later attempts when he gets the chance to let his imagination run wild within the context of a novel. It...more

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Mar 18, 2012 Zahir rated it 2 of 5 stars

I am a huge fan of Kurt Vonnegut, especially his short stories in Welcome to the Monkey house. This collection of his short fiction is from some of the earliest part of his career, and David Eggers, in the introduction, points out that these were "mouse trap stories." He was right, they were interesting, and entertaining short fiction. But this collection is from an era before Vonnegut really came into his own and really perfected his craft.

Entertaining stories for any Vonnegut fan, you do see...more

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Feb 11, 2011 Adam Floridia rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: vonnegut

Simple, sweet little stories from a clearly developing Vonnegut, but still a gift from beyond the grave.

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Jun 02, 2012 Tzeck rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kurt-vonnegut

Поредната порция свеж ранен вонегътизъм, изпълнена с искреност и съзерцание на човешката душа във всичките й проявления. Всеки разказ носи в себе си нещо типично Вонегътско, макар самите разкази да не са типични Вонегътски. И всеки ме грабна със своята простота на изказа и същевременно детайлно вглеждане в същността на живота. Не най-доброто, на което Вонегът е способен, но достатъчно добро. Особено впечатление ми направиха разказите за "бъбеците" и последният за художниците. Задължително четиво...more

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Nov 23, 2012 Ritu rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: 2012

This book introduced me to Kurt Vonnegut - my first book written by this author! The book has many short stories. The book's forward was written by Dave Eggers, another author whose work I love. I was excited after listening to Dave's introduction. And I was not disappointed! I loved the short stories - some more than the others. Each story had some lesson that you will be able to walk away with. Usually, short stories may not satisfy you but Kurt's adept writing, his plot, insights into human n...more

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Apr 10, 2013 Rhys rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Kurt Vonnegut is one of my favourite American writers. After a long hiatus I rediscovered his work last year and have read five of his books since then. *While Mortals Sleep* is an excellent collection of stories that remained unpublished during his lifetime. Most of them date from the early years of his career. I was impressed with the title story, 'The Humbugs', 'With His Hand on the Throttle' and 'The Epizootic'; but my two favourites in this collection were 'Bomar' and 'Jenny'. The entire bo...more

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May 27, 2011 trina rated it 3 of 5 stars

stories from when vonnegut was a starving young artist, trying to write stories that would please the wider public (and therefore sell)... the trademark sly humor from his later days glimmers here and there, but for the most part these stories are straightforward morality tales he sold to popular magazines. everyone's gotta make a living sometimes, you know. enjoyable, for the most part, but a bit forgettable, truth be told. i wish he were still around to write the way he wrote later, when he co...more

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May 01, 2013 Liz rated it 4 of 5 stars

I love Vonnegut, and I admire his ability to appear to simply poke fun, while really exploring deep truths and inequalities in our world. In some of these stories, it's truly impressive how Vonnegut paints such a thorough, multi-faceted picture of a human being, in just a few short pages. The depth of his characters come across even stronger than in some of his novels. Of course, they can't all be winners, and some of the stories are a bit bland. Worth a read if you're craving Vonnegut and have...more

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Mar 22, 2013 Eddy Allen rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction-and-westerns

Smart, whimsical, and often scathing, the fiction of Kurt Vonnegut influenced a generation of American writers—including Dave Eggers, author of this volume’s Foreword. In these previously unpublished gems, Vonnegut’s originality infuses a unique landscape of factories, trailers, and bars—and characters who pit their dreams and fears against a cruel and sometimes comically indifferent world.

Here are stories of men and machines, art and artifice, and how ideals of fortune, fame, and love take curi...more

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