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Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage

kurt vonnegut jr.

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“An anthology in which Vonnegut freely quotes himself on everything from art and architecture to madness and mass murder...Uncompromising.”— Los Angeles Times

“Honest and scarily funny, and it offers a rare insight into an author who has customarily hidden his heart.”— New York Times

Here we have a collection of essays and speeches by me, with breezy autobiographical commentary serving as connective tissue and splints and bandages. Here we go again with real life and opinions made to look like one big, preposterous animal not unlike an invention by Dr. Seuss...

—Kurt Vonnegut, from Fates Worse Than Death

240 pages, Paperback

First published July 1,1982

This edition

Format
240 pages, Paperback
Published
September 1, 1992 by Penguin Publishing Group
ISBN
9780425134061
ASIN
0425134067
Language
English
Characters More characters
  • Kurt Vonnegut

    Kurt Vonnegut

    Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American writer. His works such as Cats Cradle (1963), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), and Breakfast of Champions (1973) blend satire, gallows humor, and science fiction. As a citizen he was...

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About the author

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kurt vonnegut jr.

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Kurt Vonnegut, Junior was an American novelist, satirist, and most recently, graphic artist. He was recognized as New York State Author for 2001-2003.

He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked as a journalist before joining the U.S. Army and serving in World War II.

After the war, he attended University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology and also worked as a police reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. He left Chicago to work in Schenectady, New York in public relations for General Electric. He attributed his unadorned writing style to his reporting work.

His experiences as an advance scout in the Battle of the Bulge, and in particular his witnessing of the bombing of Dresden, Germany whilst a prisoner of war, would inform much of his work. This event would also form the core of his most famous work, Slaughterhouse-Five, the book which would make him a millionaire. This acerbic 200-page book is what most people mean when they describe a work as "Vonnegutian" in scope.

Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed humanist and socialist (influenced by the style of Indiana's own Eugene V. Debs) and a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The novelist is known for works blending satire, black comedy and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973)

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Rating(4 / 5.0, 99 votes)
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99 reviews All reviews
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yorokobisenpai
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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"Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage" is a rich and engaging tapestry of Kurt Vonnegut's life and philosophy. With its blend of humor, wisdom, and personal reflection, the book offers a unique perspective on the human experience. While not a conventional autobiography, it captures the essence of Vonnegut's literary legacy and the enigmatic persona behind some of the 20th century's most beloved novels.
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daniel__wrighton
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I would rate this book 2.5 out of 5 stars, because while it says in the title that it's an autobiographical collage and I really should have anticipated the chaos, I still wasn't the biggest fan of how scattered it all was. There were some interesting portions for sure, but some chapters bled very nicely into one another while others would dramatically change the subject.

Still, it was a good opportunity to learn more about Kurt Vonnegut's personal life, and I feel like the scattered style is part of the appeal of his works. I love the story about him rewriting the lyrics to a song in Latin because he disliked the message that it sent, and in general, it was neat to hear his opinions on things like gun control and the military. Some of the topics I had already gathered from reading three of his novels, but it was nice to listen to him speak more openly, without the obfuscation of a novel's plot standing in the way.
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Strawberry82
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Death is nothing. What is all this fuss about?
“Let us ‘up the ante,’ as gamblers say. Let us talk about fates worse than death. When the Reverend Jim Jones saw that his followers in Guyana were facing fates worse than death, he gave them Kool-Aid laced with cyanide. If our government sees that we are facing fates worse than death, it will shower our enemies with hydrogen bombs, and then we will be showered in turn. There will be plenty of Kool-Aid for everyone, in a manner of speaking, when the right time comes.
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FatNinja
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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collection of speeches & essays, he reflects on religion, war and his second marriage - with a steadily more jaundiced eye. Wampeters Foma and Granfalloons is still my favorite Vonnegut non-fiction, I think.
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aredessa502
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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This book, like all of Vonnegut's nonfiction (that I have read so far), is uneven and repetitive in parts. It doesn't have a central theme; it's a collage of speeches, essays, and observations put down to paper by Vonnegut in the 80s. The main point, if I have to come up with one, is that Vonnegut was even more pessimistic later in life than he was after the war. He comments himself on this in the book, as well as much more. While I would only recommend this to die-hard Vonnegut fans (like myself), there was definitely some interesting new insight into Vonnegut's life here. Fates Worse Than Death doesn't deserve 5 stars but it's written too well to earn only 3, so 4 it is.

Slowly but surely, I'm running out of Vonnegut to read.
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Rollapoid
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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I remember reading this long ago when i was a senior in university and I often think back to this book and the nuggets of wisdom and clarity that were bestowed upon me. This is a collection of eye opening essays that will make you really stop and think about the state of the world. Things were quite a bit different in the peaceful 90's and this book will have a lot more meaning today than it did back then. A recommended read for anyone who is interested in geopolitics and/or delvinginto human nature.
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TheCrazyHorse
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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The late, great Kurt Vonnegut points out, right at the outset, that no one had "clamored" for this "sequel" to the earlier-published (and far superior) "Palm Sunday". This hodge-podge of commencement speeches, magazine articles and, of all things, sermons, does have the virtue of the intros, extros and commentary written by Vonnegut especially for this volume in an attempt to hold together what they (his publishers) would have the reader believe is an "autobiographical collage" (2.0).
Vonnegut himself didn't seem entirely convinced and, in the opinion of this Vonnegut fan, this book foreshadows what was to come after the author's death; the relentless publication, in one book after another, of anything and everything the man ever scribbled on to a piece of paper and left lying around.
If you love Vonnegut, as I do, you will want to read this book even if it makes you a little sad. His publishers knew that.
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UtisNemo
★ ★ ★ ★ ★
April 17,2025
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Ekki jafn góð og Palm Sunday í heildina, en inniheldur heldur ekki jafn tilgangslausa kafla. Nær heldur ekki sömu hæðum.
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