A collection of essays. Some worth skipping, none worth nothing. My favorites were the biography on Helena Blavatsky and his expedition to Biafra.

Collected incidental prose from one of America's wise men. Vonnegut gives his take on a variety of topics- Biafra, the South, politics, commonsensical subversion from a man who had truly seen it all.

I think that one of the regrettable things about living in the modern moment is that people seem to ape his hard, sarcastic, yet chillingly blase and snickering style as the true voice of experience: "Hi ho, So It Goes, etc" though Vonnegut seemed to be one of those people who were really and truly damaged and enlightened by his experiences, causing him to look at his own life from an intimate, painful distance.

He earned his world-weariness the hard way and its a wonder that he escaped the numerous hells he went through to arrive at his wisdom. Nobody else could talk about "crying" for Biafra by leaning his head over his desk and making several short, sharp barking sounds.

I would love for politicians to read this and take his words to heart. He had a social vision which often (I think) got buried under the "zany" blurbs and wacky hair.

He put the 'deeply serious' back in the middle of the 'hilarious dark humor' trope we've seen flogged to death over and over again in this culture.

I think that level of bone-dense, black humor irony is attractive and powerful as a literary device because it's a measure of who one truly is, a response to the loss and despair a true idealist feels when forced by circumstance or reflection to understand how much evil holds sway over the affairs of men.

It's an attractive style because its so devastating and its so devastating precisely because it is a glimmering of truth coming from the broken heart of a near-ruined man.

Not to miss for lovers of Vonnegut's cranky ramblings.

Some to love are:
1. Teaching the Unteachable
2. Yes, We Have No Nirvanas
3. Fortitude
4. "There's a Maniac Loose Out There"
5. Why They Read Hesse
6. Biafra: A People Betrayed
7. Address at Bennington College, 1970
8. In A Manner That Must Shame God Himself
9. Playboy Interview

This collection of non-fiction writing from Kurt Vonnegut spans the years 1966-74 and includes essays, reviews, speeches and other odds and ends. It's a bit of a mixed bag, but Vonnegut fans will definitely find things to enjoy.

Lovely. The interview with Playboy had me teary.

A nice collection of Vonnegut essays. The Playboy interview alone makes this collection worth reading, with Vonnegut proving once again to be so prescient. Here, Vonnegut explains why McGovern lost the ‘72 Presidential election: “He failed as an actor. He couldn’t create on camera a character we could love or hate. So America voted to have his show taken off the air... Only one thing matters: Can he jazz us up on camera? This is a national tragedy, of course - that we’ve changed from a society to an audience.” He also explains how he’d have run the campaign: “I would have made the poor admit that they’re poor... How did Americans beat the Great Depression? We banded together. In those days, members of unions called each other brother and sister, and they meant it.” These are fantastic gems that prove (for better or worse) the timeliness of Vonnegut’s writing. Other highlights include his discussion of the space program and the popularity of the Maharishi.

I must admit that some of the selections left me disappointed. His speeches were a let down, and there was one essay I just couldn’t be bothered to complete. This is surprising given that I’m a big Vonnegut fan and have read 15 of his books. At the same time, this merely proves to me that I’m not on autopilot when reading him, and that I’m still a discerning fan. It also reminds us that sometimes, essays and speeches not in print deserve to stay out of print. Overall, however, this is a fun collection that is definitely worth picking up.

The reviews of other novels, ‘Fortitude,’ and the Playboy Interview really sat with me.

‘There’s a Maniac Out There’ was by far my favorite. Hearing about Vonnegut’s respect for Capote helped to capacitate this true-crime essay based on the Truro murders hooked me more in fifteen pages than the 300+ pages of Capote’s own ‘In Cold Blood.’

The speeches and addresses weren’t addressed or spoken to me, so I didn’t care for any of them. What a surprise. Vonnegut’s really teaching me to be a top-notch asswipe.

Kurt Vonnegut met Chinua Achebe in Africa? I found this so fascinating.

I also really enjoyed the little review of Fear and Loathing on the Campaign Trail.

Gee Kurt, tell us what you really think! I can't help but love this cynical optimist, returning to whatever book of his that falls in my lap, often after disappointment from the search for a good book. Yes, it's dated, and his thoughts/mindset are rooted in socialism. But the subject of human nature and its flaws is good to revisit from time to time IMO.

Odds 'n sods that have dated far less than I imagined they would have. No: it's we who have slid back. Unca Kurt knew full well in 1970something that whatever it was we were designing our society for, it wasn't each other, let alone ourselves. He tried to trick us into paying attention, and we got our revenge by bricking him up inside his own cult following ("Vintage Vonnegut!").

I used imagine him reading his books out loud into my mind's ear, and always heard a merry twinkle and giggle in that voice. More the fool me. He was laughing that he might not cry. Any of the rest of us who still have a germ of sense are bound to do likewise.

A collection of some of the reviews and essays that Kurt Vonnegut has written, in addition to some of the speeches and interviews that he completed. The preface and the Playboy Interview are the most interesting pieces of this collection. Most of the book is quite boring and not very insightful, but there are little nuggets of wisdom sprinkled throughout.

“This is what I find most encouraging about the writing trades: they allow mediocre people who are patient and industrious to revise their stupidity, to edit themselves into something like intelligence. They also allow themselves to seem saner than sane.”

“Others think we have to evolve, to become better monkeys with bigger brains. We don’t need more information. We don’t need bigger brains. All that is required is that we become less selfish than we are.”

“Kids will learn anything, you know. Their heads are empty when they’re born. Grown-ups can put anything in there.”

“We trust ourselves so much with weapons that many American households keep firearms as pets. Too many of us treat guns with genial familiarity. Guns should give us the heebie-jeebies. They are killing machines. That is all they are. We should dread them the way we dread cancer and cyanide and electric chairs.”

“So now when I speak to students, I do moralize. I tell them not to take more than they need, not to be greedy. I tell them not to kill, even in self-defense. I tell them not to pollute water or the atmosphere. I tell them not to raid the public treasury. I tell them not to work for people who pollute water or the atmosphere, or who raid the public treasury. I tell them not to commit war crimes or to help others to commit war crimes. These morals go over very well. They are, of course, echoes of what the young say to themselves.”

“No — although I did get into the prescribed-amphetamines thing because I was sleeping a lot. I’ve always been able to sleep well, but after eight hours of sleep, I’d find myself taking a nap in the afternoon. I found I could sleep from one to five if I wanted to, spend the afternoon seeing wonderful color movies. It’s a common response to depression. I was taking these enormous naps and I decided it was a waste of time. So I talked to a doctor about it and she prescribed Ritalin. It worked. It really impressed me. I wasn’t taking a whole lot of it, but it puzzled me so much that I could be depressed and just by taking this damn little thing about the size of a pinhead, I would feel much better… I’ve stopped, but I was so interested that my mood could be changed by a pill.”

What do you do when you've read a couple disappointing books in a row? You read something else by Vonnegut. While this one wasn't as good as much of his other collections, it's still enjoyable and better than most other writing out there. Just about everything Vonnegut writes has a way of resonating as authentic and worthwhile and this is no different.