Books by Kurn Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut blended humor, satire, profound subjects, and science fiction with a uniqueness and light touch that captured the complexity and darkness of the world.

Vonnegut studied chemistry at Cornell University, where he wrote for the school newspaper, before joining the army and serving in World War II. After the war, he went to graduate school in anthropology at the University of Chicago and also worked as a police reporter.

Vonnegut knew something about human nature, darkness, and evil. He was captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge and survived the Allied bombing and destruction of Dresden, where, as a prisoner of war, he took shelter in an underground meat locker. This powerful and traumatic experience shaped Vonnegut’s views and his writing for the rest of his life.

One of my favorite books is the anti-war novel Slaughterhouse-Five, which became a bestseller, was a finalist for the National Book Award, and made Vonnegut famous. It’s not your typical anti-war book. It blends the best of what became Vonnegut’s trademarks.

Slaughterhouse-Five reveals many of its key points in the first pages: Billy’s death, Edgar Derby’s execution in Dresden for petty theft, and one of my favorite parts of the entire novel, Billy’s kidnapping by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, which is peak Vonnegut.

Slaughterhouse-Five struck a chord with the Vietnam generation, making Vonnegut an anti-war hero. The novel isn’t dated at all; it’s a creative, multilayered story full of surprises. It’s one of my all-time favorite books because of its masterful plotting, its creative use of sci-fi, humor, and magic, and because it has something important to say.

The narrator of Cat’s Cradle is researching what people were doing the moment the atomic bomb hit Hiroshima. Felix Hoenikker, a central figure in the book, is its Oppenheimer character, though unlike the real-life Oppenheimer, Hoenikker feels no remorse about creating the bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.

The title Cat’s Cradle comes from Hoenikker playing with a piece of string, making a cat’s cradle at the moment the bomb was dropped, a symbol of how detached from reality he had become. It’s an irreverent read with a number of wild and entertaining episodes, but this is a dark tale about out-of-touch nuclear scientists who have the ability to destroy not just a city but the entire world.

Life-and-death topics, eccentric characters, and wild plots are hallmarks of Vonnegut’s books. Many feel his pre-1980s books are his best, but Galápagos and Bluebeard are excellent, and his final novel, Timequake, should be considered one of his best.

Books by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Cat’s Cradle
Slaughterhouse-Five
Breakfast of Champions
The Sirens of Titan
Mother Night
Galápagos
Welcome to the Monkey House
Galápagos
Player Piano
A Man Without a Country
Slapstick, or Lonesome No More!
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Bluebeard
Timequake
Hocus Pocus
Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons
Jailbird
Deadeye Dick
Complete Stories
Harrison Bergeron
God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian
Armageddon in Retrospect
While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction

Check out the official Kurt Vonnegut site here.

Audiobooks by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Slaughterhouse-Five
A Man Without a Country
Breakfast of Champions
Cat’s Cradle
Mother Night
The Sirens of Titan
Player Piano
Welcome to the Monkey
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
Galapagos
If This Isn’t Nice, What Is? Advice for the Young
Jailbird
Hocus Pocus
Sinbad
Deadeye Dick
Slice of Life
Bluebeard
Look at the Birdie
Fates Worse Than Death
While Mortals Sleep
Pity the Reader
Timequake
Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons
Armageddon in Retrospect
Bagombo Snuff Box
Palm Sunday
2 B R 0 2 B
Basic Training
We Are What We Pretend to Be
Love, Kurt The Vonnegut Love Letters, 1941-1945
A Rare Recording of Kurt Vonnegut

Biographies, Interviews, and Letters

And So it Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life
onversations with Kurt Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut: The Last Interview and Other Conversations
Love, Kurt: The Vonnegut Love Letters, 1941-1945
Letters by Kurt Vonnegut Jr., Dan Wakefield
Love as Always, Kurt: Vonnegut as I Knew Him by Loree Rackstraw

Quotes by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”
“Those who believe in telekinetics, raise my hand.”
“Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.”
“I want to stand as close to the edge as I can without going over. Out on the edge you see all kinds of things you can’t see from the center.”
“Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt.”
“And so it goes…”
“And on the subject of burning books: I want to congratulate librarians, not famous for their physical strength or their powerful political connections or their great wealth, who, all over this country, have staunchly resisted anti-democratic bullies who have tried to remove certain books from their shelves, and have refused to reveal to thought police the names of persons who have checked out those titles.”
“We have to continually be jumping off cliffs and developing our wings on the way down.”
“If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph: The only proof he needed for the existence of God was music.”
“A purpose of human life, no matter who is controlling it, is to love whoever is around to be loved.”
“How nice — to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.”
“Of all the words of mice and men, the saddest are, “It might have been.”
“Dear future generations: Please accept our apologies. We were rolling drunk on petroleum.”
“Here we are, trapped in the amber of the moment. There is no why.”
“Being a Humanist means trying to behave decently without expectation of rewards or punishment after you are dead.”
“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around, and don’t let anybody tell you different.”
“True terror is to wake up one morning and discover that your high school class is running the country.”
“The universe is a big place, perhaps the biggest.”
“I was a victim of a series of accidents, as are we all.”
I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone.”
“The only difference between Hitler and Bush is that Hitler was elected.”
“All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist.”
“Beware of the man who works hard to learn something, learns it, and finds himself no wiser than before.”
“A sane person to an insane society must appear insane.”