Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Books

Description /Buy link takes you to Amazon. As an Amazon Associate I earn money from qualifying purchases.

Kurt Vonnegut was an American author who spent five decades writing short stories, plays, and full-length novels. His work was almost always critical of society. His satire reflected his pessimistic view of the human condition.

Print:

Born in 1922 in Indianapolis to an architect, Vonnegut was the youngest of three children. He spent a few years at Cornell University before leaving to join the army. But he was hardly uneducated. His time at the Carnegie Institute of Technology (and the University of Tennessee) gifted the young man his skills in Mechanical Engineering.

Having joined the army in the 194os, Vonnegut was pulled into the chaos of the Second World War. His time in Europe wasn’t particularly pleasant. The events of the Battle of the Bulge ended with his Incarceration. His internment in Dresden involved a stint in a meat locker where he hid during the Allied Bombing.

Vonnegut and his wife, Jane Marie Cox, were romantically involved in high school.. Having survived his time as a Prisoner of War, the author came back home and married Jane. Their marriage produced three children. Though, he was eventually forced to care for his sister’s three children after she died along with her husband.

Kurt Vonnegut’s life after the army was a little scattered. Besides his time at General Electric as a public relations worker, he also experimented with newspaper reporting and teaching. The dawn of his writing career can be traced back to ‘Player Piano’, Vonnegut’s first novel which he wrote and published in 1952.

Critics loved the book and reviewed it positively. But general audiences were not that drawn to it. As such, ‘Player Piano’ became a commercial failure. This trend continued for the next two decades. Every story the author churned out excited critics but audiences refused to give the author the commercial success he desired.

The exception was ‘Slaughterhouse Five’ which became a bestseller. The same goes for ‘Time quake’ which received mixed reviews. Kurt Vonnegut’s latter years were more successful. It was during those years that he produced the essays and short stories that manifested the strong social and political commentary for which he is remembered.

Vonnegut was 84 when he died. That was in 2007. His passing was the result of a head injury. He was married to his second wife, Jill Krementz, at that time. His first marriage to Jane ended when she became a Christian. Their disparate beliefs became an ostensible barrier between them when all their children left home.

Though they eventually separated, their friendship remained strong. Jane died in 1986.

Kurt Vonnegut Awards

Vonnegut’s list of accolades includes Hugo Award Nominations for ‘The Sirens of Titan’. ‘Slaughterhouse Five’, and ‘Cat’s Cradle’. He also received John W. Campbell, Nebula, and British Fantasy Society Award Nominations for ‘Galapagos’, ‘Slaughterhouse’, and ‘Time quake’ respectively.

Kurt Vonnegut Books into Movies

Slaughterhouse Five became a science fiction film, also called ‘Slaughterhouse Five’, in 1972. Directed by George Roy Hill, the book follows a hero who keeps experiencing the events of his life in random order.

Best Kurt Vonnegut Books

A patient who struggled with depression for years, Vonnegut’s fans celebrate him because he wasn’t afraid to manifest his personal struggles in the books he wrote, with some of the best titles in his bibliography including:

Slaughterhouse Five: Billy Pilgrim is the narrator of this science fiction story. A soldier who served in the First World War, Billy believes that he was captured by aliens and held in an alien zoo. As a result, he has become unstuck in time. He keeps jumping back and forth through time.

Cat’s Cradle: Felix Hoenikker was one of the founding fathers of the atomic bomb. John, the narrator of the story, is in the process of writing a book about Hiroshima when he encounters the children of Hoenikker. It turns out that, besides his involvement in the development of the atomic bomb, the doctor also created a substance called ice-nine.

Hoenikker was compelled to make ice-nine once he realized that soldiers were struggling to wade through swampy locations during battle. Ice-nine was supposed to turn these wet areas into solid surfaces, allowing the military to advance without impediment. But now John knows that ice-nine has the power to destroy the planet and a crazed dictator has entered the mix.

When Does The Next Kurt Vonnegut Jr. book come out?

Kurt Vonnegut Jr. doesn't seem to have an upcoming book. Their newest book is Love, Kurt: The Vonnegut Love Letters, 1941-1945 and was released on December, 1st 2020. It is the newest book in the Kurt Vonnegut Jr. Non-Fiction Books.

Home » Author » Kurt Vonnegut Jr.