If you have any interest in this sad, goofy man, you will enjoy this book.

Since this book is a compilation of such varied works I think it is impossible to assign one rating to the whole thing. As Vonnegut says in the introduction, because the essays/interviews/speeches etc. are placed in the book chronologically, they do tend to get better the further along you get.

If he gave one of his commencement speeches at my graduation, I probably wouldn’t know what to make of it. They were interesting but very strange, given the context. There were several anecdotes that were poignant enough that I think I might retain them, but probably my favorite form that’s in this book is his essays. I love just reading his thoughts about x, y, & z. But, if I had to choose one piece for someone who wasn’t familiar with Kurt Vonnegut to read out of this book, it would definitely be the Playboy interview at the end, which I thought was a good survey of Vonnegut’s strongest opinions & feelings about things.

Overall a very enjoyable read. It was my first time reading any of Vonnegut’s nonfiction and I have to say that I think I’ll find myself reading more in the future.

Being one of the last Vonnegut books I've yet to read, I certainly knew what I might be able to expect going into it. I was pleasantly nonplussed. All of these essays, speeches, and one screen play had warmth and wit indicative of anything else Vonnegut has ever written. Covering contemporary news and culture (of the 70's), thoughts on writing, and some strange outlying topics such as the Mother of American mysticism and his daughter's acquaintance who ended up being a serial killer, this book is all over the map while encapsulating Vonnegut's world view quite well.

Some excellent quotes:

"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."

"One trouble, it seems to me, is that the majority of the people who rule us, who have our money and power, are lawyers or military men. The lawyers want to talk our problems out of existence. The military men want us to find the bad guys and put bullets through their brains. These are not always the best solutions- particularly in the fields of sewage disposal and birth control."