Kurt Vonnegut is dead

I don’t mind admitting that there is a catalogue of books that I was required to read in college but which I only skimmed, at best.

Nevertheless, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) made such a subliminal impression that I was drawn back to it’s surreal anti-war prose later in life. And I have no doubt that my post-graduate reading imbued me with far greater understanding and appreciation of this book than I could have hoped for as a college student – even if I had bothered to read it.

Cursed fate that Slaughterhouse-Five did not make a similar impression on George W. Bush….

Of course Vonnegut wrote many other novels but he readily acknowledged that – as a writer – he peaked rather early in his career. Alas, it all came to an end last Wednesday when he died from brain injuries he suffered after falling in his home several weeks ago. He was 84.

So it goes indeed…