Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut just died. He was 84. Not bad for a smoker.

He was one of my favorite writers. I've read every novel and short story and quite a few essays. I've also re-read most of his stuff.

He had the ability to write in an easy, humorous style so enjoyable that a lot of critics distrusted him. How could something this much fun be any good? But he was able to take on deep subjects, come at them from odd angles, and crack a lot of great jokes along the way.

Early on he was typecast as a science fiction writer, but he really wasn't. First, he wrote too well (okay, a bit unfair, but there's something to it). Second, he was capable of writing in other genres and most of his novels couldn't be described as sf. Even early on, in a straightforward WWII novel like Mother Night, he showed his chops. (His alter-ego Kilgore Trout--now that's an sf writer.) Vonnegut himelf said he didn't mind being thought of as an sci-fi author, except that critics confused the category with a urinal.

He had a strange career. He was a successful short story writer back in the days when you could make a living at it. Then the market dried up (thank you, TV) and the novels he'd written hadn't sold that well. He had to seek regular work and might have given up writing. But he had a publisher who believed in him, and Cat's Cradle (one of his best works) started selling. Next came Slaughterhouse-Five, his best known book, and in his mid-40s he was suddenly a superstar author.

CC and S-F are still the best introductions to his work (along with Welcome To The Monkey House, a collection of his best short stories), but really he never wrote a bad novel. All his stuff is worth looking at. And I think they're still in print.