Kurt Vonnegut

by Jerome Klinkowitz

Offers a profile of the American writer, discusses the main themes of each of his novels, and describes his place in modern literature

Genres: Nonfiction, Literary Criticism

96 pages, Paperback

First published January 20, 1990

Reviews

[Derek Baldwin · Rating 4 out of 5]

While rather dated this is a nice summary of Vonnegut's novels up to and including Jailbird. This has a lot of synchronicity for me because Jailbird was the first novel of his that I purchased at the time of publication. Having been so awestruck by Slaughterhouse Five, which remains my favourite novel forty years later, I searched diligently for the earlier books (and still have them today) and it is the insights into these, especially Player Piano, which make this a very worthwhile study. I recommend it to anyone who is a Vonnegut fan (or scholar, if you insist).

[Andrew Corsini · Rating 3 out of 5]

This is a methodical summary of Vonnegut's writings, analysing their themes but all rather generic, brief and not particularly inciteful. It's a decent enough read, because it's short, but there's no real need to pick this up.

[Amyra · Rating 4 out of 5]

"quite enlightening and engadging as the fisrt book I've ever read about Kurt Vonnegut and his writings"