A very uneven, sometimes witty, sometimes interesting, sometimes dull collection of short stories, speeches, essays, letters, and other previously unpublished works. I enjoyed ‘Self-interview’, his teaching experiences and a couple of his book reviews. Vonnegut fans should find this book an interesting read.
I prefer the book edited by Wakefield, titled, ‘Letters’ by Kurt Vonnegut, published in 2012. This book provides a good review of Vonnegut’s life, his character, and what Vonnegut thought was important.

I was introduced to Kurt Vonnegut when I was in university and I became a fan. I am attempting to gradually revisit his work now as a much older person. I still appreciate him, but sometimes for different reasons. This book is a loosely stitched together collection of his short writing, connected with his memories of the context around them.

I vividly remember the first time I read this. I was sick as a dog with a horrible throat infection. I was reading Palm Sunday and swilling cough syrup directly from the bottle. I was in my mid-20s, living in a crappy basement suite, working my first real job. I think that is why this book made such an impression on me, containing as it does some of his speeches to young people. Vonnegut speaks about how to live life and this was information that I needed at the time. I fully believed him that loneliness and boredom would be the worst problems that I would face. I had enough experience in the work force at that point to make this argument meaningful.

I followed some of his Palm Sunday advice—cultivating my network of extended family. I got to know not only my first cousins, but second and third cousins and enjoyed spending time with them. I didn't leave things there, though. I joined societies devoted to various interests of mine and made good friends there. I volunteered and made more friends. I made sure that I had a busy and full life. Thank you Mr. Vonnegut. I can honestly say that I have rarely been lonely since I was 28, though I certainly enjoy a fair amount of solitude. I have rarely been bored.

Vonnegut shows us how the world could be improved by the application of compassion and kindness. He warns us that nothing is all good or all bad. There are plenty of gray areas and we should keep that in mind before getting all judgey. He reminds us of the value of the arts, whether you read, paint, sculpt, act, or indeed if you provide an audience for those who create. Kindness, companionship, creativity. These are the finest parts of life.

I adore this man.

I finished reading this a few weeks ago and loved it. At first I thought it was tedious and indigestible, but the further along I got, the more I appreciated this sarcastic, collage-autobiography. Well worth a read, but only if you've read a few Vonnegut books beforehand. Otherwise you might get offended, or might not understand the comedic arrogance of the novel.

I read this for an Advance Composition class. I never thought much about it however the concepts he brings to his audiences attention keep coming up in real life situations so I guess this was more of a valuable work than I thought.

I love Kurt Vonnegut!!

I got this from the library not realizing that it was non-fiction and a sort of autobiographical collage (kind of like a blog before they existed). So it wasn't a tight, neat, clever story like Cat's Cradle, but I couldn't help totally loving this guy's writing, and much of his perspective on the world.

Some theological highlights:

-"I don't think anybody ever dreaded hell as much as most of us dread the contempt of our fellowmen. Under our new and heartfelt moral code, we might be able to horrify would-be evildoers with just that: the contempt of their fellowmen. For that contempt to be effective, though, we would need cohesive communities, which are about as common as bald eagles these days."

-"The nuclear family doesn't provide nearly enough companionship."

-"Be warned: if you allow yourself to see dignity in someone, you have doomed yourself to wanting to understand and help whoever it is."

-"It seems to me that the most universal revolutionary wish now or ever is a wish for heaven, a wish by a human being to be honored by angels for something other than beauty or usefulness."

For someone who calls himself at various times an atheist, a Unitarian,a skeptical Free Thinker, and a Christ-loving agnostic, Vonnegut is pretty spot-on with much that I love in Christianity. He named his book "Palm Sunday" and finished it with a sermon. He quotes Bertrand Russell and Jesus in the same breath. And it's a really, really refreshing breath that I find myself never able to get enough of.

"God is unknowable, but Nature is explaining herself all the time."

A veritable kaleidoscope of Kurt Vonnegut! The introduction humbly begins: "this is a very great book about an American genius." Well, then. Can't say I disagree, however. And boy, how, do we need us some KV in the present situation, as I write this review after spending the better part of ten weeks under coronavirus lockdown. Somehow, despite the ensuing tragedy, I think Kurt would find all this funny. Strangely, I find that heartening. Who was it who said that life is a comedy to those who think and a tragedy to those who feel? Kinda like that. In fact, that was perhaps the most enviable aspect of KV's great genius: the ability to find humor in the face of indescribable tragedy. His experiences during the war taught him that. This is the last KV novel in my to-read pile, and I've been holding it reserve, lest it be a while before I can lay hold of some more, but, what the hell.

Along the lines of his premier masterpiece (in my opinion), A Man Without A Country (my personal favorite), this collection of KV memorabilia is pure, distilled Vonnegut, replete with KV neologisms: case in point - blivit, an all-out assault on the senses and sensibilities. That doesn't mean that his kaleidoscopic work is self-aggrandizing, however. As one might expect, in fact, KV talks about himself by talking about others, who run the gamut from his ancestors in a recounting of his family's storied genealogy, provided to him by a relative, to his various homages at funerals, whereby he memorialized the deceased with a mix of humor, compassion and poignancy, orations at dedications, commencements, and various organizations. I would dearly love to read a copy of his oration at Isaac Asimov's funeral, where he had them rolling in the aisles.

In any event, the moral of the story here is that our lives are essentially a nonlinear collection of experiences, with multiple foci, with a heavy emphasis on our relationships with others, which, he asserts in true KV fashion, makes life worth living. This is also one of the primary foci of his perhaps oddest novel, Slapstick, which was something of a recounting of his relationship with his sister.

To say that this collection is eclectic would be the supreme understatement. Topics range from family and genealogy, to his views on writing (and writers), literature and his lackluster academic career to his familiar moralizing on war and death. Other topics include "playmates," "embarrassment," "religion" (spoiler alert: Kurt wasn't a fan), "obscenity" (Kurt was a VERY big fan), children, and Jonathan Swift. As this book was written in the 80s, KV isn't as cynical has he would become in the later decades of his life. It seems that he still has hope for humanity, which, by the time of his last couple of novels, he has lost completely, which is disheartening for true fans: if KV doesn't think we can make it, we are truly f***ed.

This book has it all: political, historical, memorial, ethical, and monumental. I think the best way to describe this novel is to let KV speak in his own words. A collection of notable passages appears below, but, by all means, find the ones throughout this poignant and profound book which speak to you personally.
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Re: the first amendment: "Congress shall make no law respecting an establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise thereof, or abridging the freedom of the press..." and the rest: "How could a nation with such a law raise its children in an atmosphere of decency? It couldn't - it can't So the law will surely be repealed soon for the sake of the children."

One time out in North Dakota, the books were actually burned in a furnace. I had a laugh. It was such an ignorant, dumb, superstitious thing to do. It was so cowardly, too - to make a great show of attacking artifacts. it was like St. George attacking bedspreads and cuckoo clocks.

Here is how I propose to end book banning in this country once and for all. Every candidate for school committee should be hooked up to a lie detector and asked this question: "Have you read a book from start to finish since high school? Or did you even read a book from start to finish in high school?" If the truthful answer is "no," then the candidate should be told politely that he cannot get on the school committee and blow off his big bazoo about how books make children crazy.

The highest law, [Thomas Aquinas] said, was divine law, God's law. Beneath that was natural law, which I suppose would include thunderstorms, and our right to shield our children from poisonous ideas, and so on. And the lowest law was human law. Let me clarify this scheme by comparing its parts to playing cards. Enemies of the Bill of Rights do the same sort of thing all the time, so why shouldn't we? Divine law, then, is an ace. natural law is a king. The Bill of Rights is a lousy Queen. The Thomist hierarchy lf laws is so far from being ridiculous that I have ever met anybody who did not believe it right down to the marrow of his or her bones.

All good things must come to an end, they say. So American freedom will come to an end, too, sooner or later. How will it end? As all freedoms end: by the surrender of our destines to the highest laws.

How sick was the soul revealed by the flash at Hiroshima? And I deny that it was a specifically American soul. It was the soul of every highly industrialized nation on earth, whether at war or at peace. How sick was it? It was so sick that it didn't want to live anymore. What other sort of soul would create a new physics based on nightmares, would place into the hands of mere politicians a planet so "destabilized," to borrow a CIA term, that the briefest fit of stupidity could guarantee the end of the world?

That would certainly be a better name for this planet than Earth, since it would give people who just got here a clearer idea of what they were in for: triage. Welcome to Triage.

Your own winning literary style must begin with interesting ideas in your head. Find a subject you care about and and which you in your heart feel that others should care about. It is this genuine caring, and not your games with language, which will be the most compelling and seductive element in your style.

[My brother's] most famous discovery is that silver iodide will sometimes make it rain or snow.

Here, in simple English, is what Syd does... 'he meditates. He connects his hand and paintbrush to the deeper, quieter, more mysterious part of his mind - and he paints pictures of what he sees and feels down there.'

Film is a perfect prescription for people who will not or cannot read, and have no imagination. Since they have no imaginations, those people can now be shown actors and scenery instead.

The language is holy to me, which shows how little I know about holiness. Literature is holy to me, which again shows how little I know about holiness. Only freedom to say or write whatever we please in this country is holy to me. It is a rare privilege not only on this planet, but throughout the universe, I suspect. And it is not something somebody gave us. It is a thing we give to ourselves.

The ideal, achieved by few, is this: 'Live so that you can say to God on Judgment Day, "I was a very good person, even though I did not believe in you."'

"Palm Sunday" is a book that dedicated Vonnegut fans should read, but not the casual reader. I imagine they would not appreciate what Vonnegut is doing here. The book is subtitled an "autobiographical collage", and that is an apt description. It is nonfiction, with the exception of two short humorous creative pieces that Vonnegut throws in. It has hints at the bitterness that would come to swallow up Vonnegut's' later works, but it had not consumed him yet when he wrote "Palm Sunday".
One of the most interesting aspects of the text is when Vonnegut lies about himself. For instance, he states that there were no other women involved in the breakup of his first marriage, and this is patently untrue. I love that aspect of this book, seeing how Vonnegut selects bits of autobiography to make himself look good. It makes him seem so human. He probably needed to believe a lot of good things about himself during the time he wrote this. His last novel had been roundly trashed by critics, and a lot of personal family junk had broken apart all over his head. I think most of us would have cleaned up our past a little if we could have, and Vonnegut's humanity is what has always drawn me to him and his writing.
Any avid reader will enjoy the opening chapter of "Palm Sunday" which deals with the first amendment and censorship. Vonnegut is at his biting and indignant best in this chapter. Chapter four of the text also includes a lovely essay on literary style. It is a profound and simple statement on what makes the best writing, which does not have to be "literature", but just the stuff we scribble in our everyday lives. It is the act of communicating with each other that powers the soul and Vonnegut is eloquent in his defense of it.
Another highlight of the book is a speech that Vonnegut gave called "The Noodle Factory". It is on pages 144-150 of the text and it is about reading, imagination, and the divine gifts they give. It is excellent writing, and is appropriate reading for the ages. Mankind should constantly be reminded of the ideas Vonnegut brings up so eloquently in this speech.
Some of the essays in this book are a little dated, it was published in 1981. However, the themes of human dignity and loneliness (Vonnegut staples) are brought up in essays and speeches all throughout the text, and those subjects are timeless.
The title "Palm Sunday" came from a sermon Vonnegut delivered at a church on Palm Sunday. It is an interesting piece to read from a self professed "Christ worshiping agnostic" and is the last chapter of the text. In the sermon he hits up his plea for human mercy and dignity and it is a nice way to end the book.

Very few people could pull off a book like this one. While there is a glut of autobiographical info here, it is more of a collage of Vonnegut speeches and scrawlings unfit for printing in any other medium. There is a weird play, an odd short story, and about three dozen commencement speeches and public orations included in this book, often barely tied together with more than “Once I spoke at a college in Vermont and I said…” Even so, Vonnegut’s characteristic slant on humanity, morality, and his own shortcomings are all here in full and they make the ride enjoyable. He does everything from detailing his grandparents migrations from Germany and the founding of his home town of Indianapolis, to the detailing of the lives of his own adult children, to explaining why his first marriage failed, to letter grading all of his own published novels. Sprinkled throughout are anecdotes and pithy comic sketches.

Vonnegut is always joking about the most deadly serious subject matter, mostly because no one in history has learned to make any of the right decisions ever, so how serious can it all be? On some issues, I heartily agree with him. I found the chapter titles “Obscenity” to be a perfect treatise on why making words taboo leads to muddled thinking and a society were classy behavior trumps ethical and moral standings. On many other issues, I cannot see even how he comes to his conclusions. But, as his fiction already points out, Vonnegut has always been ready to joke about the shitty state of things rather than providing a solution. He is sold on the idea that God is mostly to blame, but the closest he comes to a solution is that humanity should strive for good will, perfection (whatever the hell that is), and ethical treatment of all. As a man who lived through and thoroughly criticized both sides of WWII, you’d think he’d recognize as well as anyone that the person holding the gun and pulling the trigger is nearly always a regular old human being.

"Цветница" би послужила за страхотно заключение на личността на Кърт Вонегът. Аз избрах да е моето въведение.

The subtitle of this book, An Autobiographical Collage, fits pretty perfectly. It’s a collection of various odds and ends from Vonnegut’s life, such as commencement speeches and other invited addresses he gave, letters and book reviews, and even a script for a satirical musical version of Jekyll and Hyde. These pieces and more are interspersed with little autobiographical essays about his ancestors and childhood, his time in the army, his views on writing and censorship, and other topics. I found it to be quite a mixed bag to read: some parts fascinating, some laugh-out-loud funny, some insightful, some obnoxious, and others just bizarre (among these is an alphabetical list of all the even mildly famous people he met even once while living in New York. I most appreciated his reflections about his family (he had a fascinating bit difficult life), and while I appreciated hearing about his views on many subjects, we disagree about a lot of things (his views of various authors, a big chunk—though not all, I was somewhat surprised to find —of his political or philosophical views). He writes surprisingly very movingly about religion as well (the last chapter is a sermon he once gave at an Episcopal church on Palm Sunday, hence the collection’s title). I think I would have appreciated this more if I were more familiar with Vonnegut (so far I’ve read only CAT’S CRADLE and SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE) and not all of it was enjoyable, but it was a nice change of pace, I learned a lot, and I’m glad I picked it up.

Vonnegut is something of an acquired taste.

I love SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE and BREAKFAST OF CHAMPIONS, but whenever I try some of his other novels, I grow weary of his unique style so rapidly I give up after only a few pages.

I never tire, however, of his nonfiction—his essays, speeches, jokes, etc.

This book offers those in abundance (as well as some fiction that is pretty entertaining, though decidedly not "mainstream").

Vonnegut's voice is one of a kind, and (unfortunately for us) so too is his humor and his humanity. Again and again, he returns to the notion of kindness and generosity and it's so startling that such simple ideals really seem like impossibilities (just look at human history).

My favorite parts of this collection are Vonnegut's rants against censorship. Those who believe in censoring books or outright banning them, take heed: "I have long felt that any reviewer who expresses rage and loathing for a novel or a play or a poem is preposterous. He or she is like a person who has put on full armor and attacked a hot fudge sundae or a banana split."

Same is true of those who find certain texts "offensive."

Speaking of, he also recommends that all Board of Education members should be required to truthfully answer whether or not they have read a book all the way through since high school (or maybe even ever).

Any book-banners out there will find plenty about which to be offended in this collection. Vonnegut takes on religion and obscenity and war and human nature itself, and his jolly causticness will certainly rile up the proper-comportment police.

As for me—as a reader, a thinker, a writer, an American, and a human being—I delight in all Vonnegut has to offer, and I hope his wisdom helps enlighten and better our collective future.