Overview
A collection of reminiscences that illuminate the career and private life of the iconic author of Slaughterhouse-Five Kurt Vonnegut (1922–2007), who began his writing career working for popular magazines, held both literary aspirations and an attraction to genre fiction. His conspicuous refusal to respect literary boundaries was part of what made him a countercultural icon in the 1960s and 1970s. Vonnegut's personal life was marked in large part by public success and private turmoil. Two turbulent marriages, his sudden adoption of his late sister's four children (and the equally sudden removal of one of those children), and a mid-eighties suicide attempt all signaled the extent of Vonnegut's inner troubles. Yet, he was a generous friend to many, maintaining close correspondences throughout his life. Kurt Vonnegut Remembered gathers reminiscences—by those who knew him intimately, and from those met him only once—that span Vonnegut's entire life. Among the anecdotes in this collection are remembrances from his immediate family, reflections from his comrades in World War II, and tributes from writers he worked with in Iowa City and from those who knew him when he was young. Editor Jim O'Loughlin offers biographical notes on Vonnegut's relationship with each of these figures. Since Vonnegut's death, much has been written on his life and work, but this new volume offers a more generous view of his life, particularly his last years. In O'Loughlin's introduction to the volume, he argues that we can locate and understand Vonnegut's best self through his public persona, and that in his performance as the kind and humane figure that many of the speakers here knew him as, Vonnegut became a better person than he ever felt himself to be.
Full Product Details
Author: Jim O'Loughlin
Publisher: The University of Alabama Press
Imprint: The University of Alabama Press
Dimensions:
Width: 15.20cm
, Height: 914.40cm
, Length: 22.90cm
Weight: 0.580kg
ISBN: 9780817320119
ISBN 10: 0817320113
Pages: 264
Publication Date: 30 March 2019
Audience:
General/trade
,
General
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: In Print
This item will be ordered in for you from one of our suppliers. Upon receipt, we will promptly dispatch it out to you. For in store availability, please contact us.
Reviews
In this welcomed assemblage of encounters with Vonnegut by those who knew him best, Kurt Vonnegut Remembered celebrates the authenticity of the author's life and work as a whole, demonstrating the efficacy of Vonnegut's primary moral that we are who we pretend to be. --Lawrence R. Broer, author of Vonnegut and Hemingway: Writers at War and Sanity Plea: Schizophrenia in the Novels of Kurt Vonnegut Given Vonnegut's enduring popularity, Kurt Vonnegut Remembered offers a positive, necessary contribution to the field of writings about this enigmatic author. --D. Quentin Miller, author of Understanding John Edgar Wideman, The Routledge Introduction to African American Literature, and A Criminal Power: James Baldwin and the Law
Author Information
Jim O'Loughlin is associate professor of English at the University of Northern Iowa. He is the coauthor of Daily Life in the Industrial United States, 1870–1900.
