New critical essays on Kurt Vonnegut

the long version

Kurt Vonnegut's darkly comic work became a symbol for the counterculture of a generation. From his debut novel, Player Piano (1951), through seminal 1960's novels such as Cat's Cradle (1963) and Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) and up to the recent success of A Man Without a Country (2005), Vonnegut's writing has remained commercially popular, offering a satirical yet optimistic outlook on modern life. Though many fellow writers admired Vonnegut--Gore Vidal famously suggesting that "Kurt was never dull"--The academic establishment has tended to retain a degree of skepticism concerning the validity of his work. This dynamic collection aims to re-evaluate Vonnegut's position as an integral part of the American post-war canon of literature.