Thursday, April 12, 2007

Kurt Vonnegut Dies at 84

Two humorists in one week!

Kurt Vonnegut, the satirical novelist who captured the absurdity of war and questioned the advances of science in darkly humorous works such as "Slaughterhouse-Five" and "Cat's Cradle," died Wednesday. He was 84.

Vonnegut, who often marveled that he had lived so long despite his lifelong smoking habit, had suffered brain injuries after a fall at his Manhattan home weeks ago, said his wife, photographer Jill Krementz.

[...]

A self-described religious skeptic and freethinking humanist, Vonnegut used protagonists such as Billy Pilgrim and Eliot Rosewater as transparent vehicles for his points of view. He also filled his novels with satirical commentary and even drawings that were only loosely connected to the plot. In "Slaughterhouse-Five," he drew a headstone with the epitaph: "Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt."
Read the rest here.

I liked Vonnegut's earlier work and have read most of it. I really loved "Cat's Cradle." I liked his quirky humor and unusual stories. I wish he had kept writing then we would have a larger body of his work.

Do you guys like his writing?