"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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

Ekki jafn góð og Palm Sunday í heildina, en inniheldur heldur ekki jafn tilgangslausa kafla. Nær heldur ekki sömu hæðum.

Ten years on, Vonnegut followed up "Palm Sunday" with this excellent collection of non-fiction which should stand as evidence to those who bemoaned the end of his career as a novelist that he had outgrown any need to dress his observations up as stories. From this point on (1991), he would limit himself to short fiction (mostly collected from earlier in his career) and non-fiction, with one regrettable exception (1997's "Timequake"). It's not hard to figure out why. Vonnegut was always a moralist, but as he grew older, the sheer effort involved in wrapping his morals up within intricate plot lines, submerging them in symbolism and metaphor, and allowing them to emerge as dialogue from carefully constructed characters must have become increasingly daunting... and exhausting for a man entering his seventh decade. Surely there have been some Vonnegut fans who felt let down, perhaps even cheated, by his decision to set aside his formidable skills as a novelist. At one time I felt that way too. But as I myself grow older I gain an appreciation for his decision. And, truth be told, the man was always entertaining, even without recourse to fiction.

This collection is really the third in a series, starting with 1974's "Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons," which covered his non-fiction through the early 70s. "Palm Sunday" admirably covered the later 70s, when Vonnegut was much in demand as a speaker, and contains a considerable number of speeches. This volume, slimmer, but dense, presents various speeches and articles written during the 80s and, as such, gives more direct insight into the author's views of the Reagan era than can be gleaned from his four intervening novels. This is also, like those two previous volumes, highly autobiographical in nature, seeming to pivot around the death of his best friend, Bernard O'Hare, whom he had first met as a young soldier.

Vonnegut's take on the 80s is much what one would expect, which does not detract in any way from the bite of his ever-acerbic wit. He had earned his place as an elder statesman the hard way, and if he seems particularly stung by the reaction of critics to his then-more-recent novels, he also seems just as quick to shrug it off and, ultimately, disregard his critics as "those who cannot write." Although he does not say so in as many words, it is clear that he had some sense that his days as a novelist were in the process of drawing to a close. He seems palpably aware that his bitterness is ripening with old age, as a decade of rampant conservatism filled the headlines with moral outrage after moral outrage, and with no end in sight. So at a time when he was becoming naturally more jaded, there was ever more to be jaded about. And he would continue to offer his opinions on the state of our society, and our world, into the 90s and beyond. This was a first glimpse of the latter-day Vonnegut, not quite as pessimistic as Twain became, or, perhaps, just funnier to the end.

I liked reading a lot of Vonnegut's novels when I was in high school and college, but recently I don't enjoy him as much. This book, written in the early 1990s, is subtitled "An Autobiographical Collage" and it rambles from place to place, story to story, without much purpose. Vonnegut comes across as a pessimist who knows he used to be funnier. Those who enjoy Vonnegut will enjoy reading episodes from his life and the lives of his friends. Those who don't like Vonnegut will be bored, or perhaps offended by the incessant name-dropping.

What a wonderful book full of great ideas from one of our greatest writers. Out of all Vonnegut's Essays books I think this is my favorite. It's put together a little different than Palm Sunday. It is more linear than just putting various essays in any given order. I feel he puts some of his greatest ideas out in this book and it is hard to put it down, because you want to know what he's going to say next. It is much more personal than his other reflective books, but it will make you laugh as well as think throughout the whole thing. I highly recommend this one, especially for anyone who loves his novels.

"The joke at the beginning was the joke at the end." Anyone who can say that and then also give Nelson Algren credit for Simone de Beauvior's first orgasm deserves 5 stars. That's all I am saying. Read it! Read it! Read it! He also provides this tasty little treat, "The most satisfied of all painters is the one who can be intoxicated for hours or days or weeks or years with what his or her hands and eyes can do with art materials, and let the rest of the world go hang."