Sometimes in my more narcissistic moments I wonder what it would be like to become a famous writer as has always kind of been my dream, and to write a collection of essays all about my thoughts on life. But I don't think I could do it better than Vonnegut.

A Man Without a Country is a collection of short essays written by Vonnegut towards the end of his life. Actually he makes specific mention of his 82nd birthday which is actually the day I was born. The essays span a variety of topics, from Jesus Christ to socialism to rantings about Bush and Iraq. (there was a lot of that)

I found this essay collection very funny, but it also left me feeling pretty sad because a lot of the things Vonnegut rails against are still going on today. It seems that in 20 years we haven't really solved any of these issues. I'm inclined to agree that it seems like the people in power just don't give a fuck about the climate crisis, for example.

Yet through all of this the collection is full of glimmers of optimism:

“And I urge you to please notice when you are happy, and exclaim or murmur or think at some point, 'If this isn't nice, I don't know what is.”

I also agree wholeheartedly that music is one of the things that makes life worth living. Listening to music is the closest thing I've ever felt to a spiritual experience.

Kurt Vonnegut really was the ultimate humanist. I always wish I could've met him, but he's up in heaven now...

"Shrapnel was invented by an Englishman of the same name. Don't you wish you could have something named after you?"

آخرین حرف‌های مهم و جذّاب و البته پراکنده‌ی کرت ونه‌گوت که به‌شکل تقریباً مفتضحانه‌ای ترجمه شده.

فکر کنم اوایل اصلا نمی تونستم با این اثر ارتباط برقرار کنم بیشتر به نظرم بیانه ای در نقد سیاست های بوش بود با چاشنی طنزی نچسب، تا اینکه رسید به بخشی که نویسنده با رسم نمودار می افته به جان شاهکارهای ادبی واقعا طنز گیرا و خلاقانه ای داشت و در اواخر هر صفحه رو می نوشیدم و واقعا دوست داشتم داستان تا ابد ادامه پیدا کنه انگار پدر بزرگی مهربان داره نوه هاشو نصیحت میکنه با طنزی دلپذیر و دلچسب تصمیم دارم برم و اثار دیگه ای از این نویسنده بخونم .... :)

تروخدا وقتی شاد هستید، لطفا آن دم را دریابید و به هر شکلی که می‌توانید، با صدای بلند یا زیر لب یا توی دلتان بگویید: اگه این قشنگ نیست پس چی قشنگه؟

چقدر چسبید

Something of a misnomer, this title: “A Memoir of Life in George W. Bush’s America.” Hmm. No. In fact, Kurt’s final book is another collage of pieces taken from public speeches, and various articles commissioned for the publication In These Times. Michael Silverblatt described this book as a “response to a plea”—that plea coming from the editors of Seven Stories Press, who tickled Vonnegut into writing little chunks again. Any fresh writing from an eighty-three-year-old man is hard to come by, and Kurt recycles passages from previous books, most notably Dr. Kevorkian. But who cares? This collection is deftly edited to give Kurt’s words real power through brevity, and a cadence is established throughout, building to a moving climax. Not bad for a man without a country. The excrement has truly hit the air conditioner. (P.S. Portions of this appear in this excellent speech).

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بزرگترین حقیقتی که رو در روی ماست -همان چیزی که شاید باعث شود باقی عمرم دیگر دل و دماغ شوخی نداشته باشم- این است که می‌بینم دیگر کسی برای این سیاره تره هم خرد نمی‌کند. به گمانم مثل همه مثل الکلی‌های مراکز بازپروری زندگی می‌کنند، فقط همان روز را می‌بینند. اگر چند روز بیشتر هم شد، چه بهتر. خیلی کم سراغ دارم که کسی آینده‌ای را برای نوادگانش تصور کند.
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Life lessons and pearls of wisdom delivered in a witty, light-hearted and extraordinary way. Kurt Vonnegut is indeed a man without a country, he is a man of the planet, of Mother Earth and of a decent humankind that he laments its disappearance.

Regradless of his hard-to-get metafictional antics, this book is perhaps the clear and fathomable crystalisation of Kurt the writer, the American, the humanist, the environmentalist, the painter and many more layers of this one of a kind personality.

Many quotes hit the mark as they say. However, the following one now has a special place in my heart: "All I really wanted to do was give people the relief of laughing. Humor can be a relief, like an aspirin tablet. If a hundred years from now people are still laughing, I'd certainly be plaesed."

I will leave it at that!

A collection of musings published in 2005, two years before he died at age 84, Vonnegut is cranky ornery, hopeless about the environment, disgusted with the American government, and intensely sardonic. He's ready to "give up on people." Given how he felt at the time (he also suffered from depression) I can only wonder what he would make of these times. This short but challenging book is designed to make the reader disagree, laugh, pause, recoil, but most of all think. One insight I enjoyed is how rarely national leaders who quote the Bible cite the Sermon on the Mount and the Beatitudes. Vonnegut's conversational tone speaks directly to me more consistently than any other writer. It's rare to find an author like that, one with whom I can't help but understand and empathize. Like a friend in my ear. Some of these writings can be found elsewhere, but it's nice to have this little collection. With Kurt up in heaven, I'll take anything I can get.

Il commento che mi sento di condividere per questo libro è quello scritto dalla traduttrice, che riporto.

“Un uomo senza patria mi è sembrato un libro tanto piacevole da tradurre quanto lo è da leggere. La scrittura di questo ultimo Vonnegut è piana e scorrevole, tutta fatta di aforismi, brevi aneddoti, giudizi concisi e sagaci ( ma a volte pesantissimi) sull’America e sulla civiltà occidentale di oggi. La lingua non è quella di un ambizioso narratore postmoderno ma quella di un uomo anziano, saggio e lucidissimo con una sconfinata verve umoristica….
Ecco perché Un uomo senza patria è un gioiello di onestà e di vis polemica, che si legge - e si traduce- tutto d’un fiato, inseguendo con entusiasmo il filo dei pensieri di uno spirito libero che sembra non conoscere la pedanteria o la pretenziosità.”

"But I am eighty-two. Thanks a lot, you dirty rats. The last thing I ever wanted was to be alive when the three most powerful people on the whole planet would be named Bush, Dick and Colon.”

Well, I wonder what thoughts mr. Vonnegut would have after last year's elections...

I don't want to review this book in detail - it's good, it's vonnegutian, it's funny and clever, and you should read it yourself, it'll take you a couple of hours, no more. And that was my only problem with this book - it was too short. :)

اصولا نوشته هاي ونه گات خيلي عاليه. علي الخصوص كه يكدفعه وسط نوشته‌هاش يه دو تا فحش ناجور هم ميده! جيگر آدم حال مياد :)
ولي موقع خوندن اين كتاب احساس مي‌كردم به تكرار افتاده و هيچ كتابيش هم نتونسته برايش جاي سلاخ خانه شماره پنج را بگيره