Kurt Vonnegut

Few writers can sound old themes with completely fresh voice, method, and characters. Even fewer do it as well as Kurt Vonnegut, a contemporary novelist whose black humor and satire are unforgettable.

Born on Armistice Day in 1922, Vonnegut is known for his pacifist views, views that expressed through the social satire of his novels. While his novels are often classified as science fiction, he is known to mix genres, sometimes within the pages of a single volume.

Vonnegut enlisted in the army in 1942 and became a German prisoner of war two years later during the Battle of the Bulge. He was sent to work in a vitamin-syrup factory in Dresden and was there when it was firebombed in 1945. These were events that would later show up in his novels, forever crystallizing it in the memories of his readers. Vonnegut died in April 2007 at age 84 after suffering head injuries in a fall.

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--B. Redman