BOOK REVIEWS

Kurt Vonnegut’s A Man Without a Country

3 Oct 2024

“Fortunately, for the most part, Uncle Kurt is laughing (happily, resignedly, sadly, and bitterly all at once), and so we laugh with him, comforted and discomforted.​”

Vonnegut can hardly fail to entertain and provoke, and this late work in his omnibus career is no exception, unique that it is from his novels.

This is a collection of short anecdotal essays (collected with an artist he has collaborated with for the project) that examine seemingly dozens of topics: the nature of humor, meeting people, death, political nonsense, war, schooling, buying a stamp, aspiration, the creative process, and generational gaps. Each is written with the same conversational and unthreatening tone readers have come to love from him, the kind of ironic tension he has learned to build so affably: we imagine the friendly uncle with his arm around our shoulders good-naturedly confiding the genuine misery we all experience.

Fortunately, for the most part, Uncle Kurt is laughing (happily, resignedly, sadly, and bitterly all at once), and so we laugh with him, comforted and discomforted. After all, how many choices do we have? So sit down with this elderly Vonnegut for an hour or two and appreciate his wisdom; time well spent.

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