Kurt Vonnegut, RIP

Novelist Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. died at age 84. There was a period (high school), where I read just about everything he wrote. Most of the books I enjoyed, yet only read once. I am not sure many of them merit rereading, but each of them had something to offer. His observations of life were colored by his chattering class membership, but he often got things right in spite of that. I saw him give a lecture at UC Davis once, and he was funny, and yet I don't think I really took away any insights from the talk (much like most of his books). However, he was responsible, in part, for my lifelong love of reading. I think he was the first author who compelled me to stay up all night, two nights in a row, reading first this book, then that book.

If I were to divide his work into two categories, the one that was made of his best work would include Slaughterhouse Five, Cat's Cradle, and Player Piano.

Breakfast of Champions should have been his best book, but he killed it in the last forty pages (see Berniere, Louis de for a writer who does this consistently).

All in all, the reading world gained something from his writing, and will continue to gain something from his writing long after his passing, something very few of us writers can say with any honesty (especially not those of us who write for newspapers - take note of that, aspiring journalists).