In 1980, Vonnegut collected various speeches, reviews and letters he'd written and added commentary. The result was the book PALM SUNDAY.
I've always thought Vonnegut was somewhat sloppy, but, reading PALM SUNDAY made it clear to me that Vonnegut's sloppiness is part of a method. He was actually a writer of tremendous rigor.
He even points out that his repetition of the phrase "And so it goes" is his version of Celine's use of ellipses.
PALM SUNDAY is more interesting to me than Vonnegut's novels, because he gets directly to the things I like to hear him talk about: Man's inhumanity to man, man's strangeness, the plight of the individual.
If you've ever tried to write fiction, PALM SUNDAY has, throughout, some very serious and practical advice. If you've ever wondered what an established writer goes through, there's a letter here addressed to a school which burns Vonnegut's books. If you're interested in the World War Two generation, read Vonnegut's account of the bombing of Dresden. He was an American soldier captured by the Germans. He and his fellow prisoners were sent down to the basement of a slaughterhouse. When they came back up, the city which was there when they went downstairs was gone. So, he'd survived, as a prisoner, the complete destruction, by his compatriots, of a city of the enemy. His novel about this, SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE, has a science-fiction element because that's the only way Kurt Vonnegut could translate the experience into art. PALM SUNDAY refers intermittently to the bombing of Dresden.
Vonnegut was not sloppy. He kept his sanity by writing. He points this fact out several times. He earned the right to point it out over and over again.
Also included in this book is a history of his family written by a friend of his parents. Vonnegut comments on it, but it, in itself, sheds much light on Vonnegut's background, and does it with a touch of pathos.
Vonnegut comments on many of the notable literary figures of the day. His essay of William F. Buckley, Jr., while acknowledging the total political differences between Vonnegut and Buckley, nevertheless, captures Buckley as well as any description has. Buckley died a few days ago. Vonnegut died about half a year ago. Also here is Vonnegut's truly deep, masterful review of Joseph Heller's SOMETHING HAPPENED, which appeared in THE NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW. It's an example of Vonnegut stepping outside of himself and communicating another writer's message. Heller and Vonnegut were friends, and I gather Vonnegut wanted to summon up all his powers in the writing of that review. I read that review when it was printed, in 1974, and it has stayed in my mind ever since. I remember it more clearly than many of the novels by Vonnegut which I've read. And I love his novels.
I learned a few things from PALM SUNDAY, and I hope the fact that I learned these things might cause you to seek this book out:
Vonnegut's home city, Indianapolis, had its center gutted when Vonnegut was in middle age. Many of the buildings torn down had been designed by members of his family.
Vonnegut called Mark Twain an "American Saint."
Vonnegut was descended from Free-Thinkers. His religious skepticism was, therefore, inherited. When invited to preach -- yes -- one Palm Sunday at St. Clement's Episcopal Church in New York, he accepted, and, in his sermon, referred to himself as a "Christ-worshiping agnostic."
He didn't like movies.
He said this:
"Some people say that my friend Gore Vidal, who once suggested in an interview that I was the worst writer in the United States, is witty. I myself think he wants an awful lot of credit for wearing a three-piece suit."
Three more reasons to read this book are the self-interview, the send-up of Depression-era musicals and the general sense given of a man talking directly to anybody reading.