A Man Without a Country
Selected Book Details
- Paperback
- Author: Kurt Vonnegut
- Publisher: Random House Trade Paperbacks
- Release Date: January 2007
- ISBN-10: 081297736X
- ISBN-13: 9780812977363
- List Price: $13.95
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Summaries and Customer Reviews provided by Amazon
SummaryNEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER |
Customer Reviews
Average Rating: 
It was fascinating to hear the author's thoughts on a variety of subjects, including America, politics and life in general.
Rating:
Kurt Vonnegut never wrote a memoir . . . so it turns out
his last book, A MAN WITHOUT A COUNTRY, is perhaps the
closest he ever got to writing one.
I got to hear this relatively short collection of essays on
CD . . . it was fascinating to hear the author's thoughts
on a variety of subjects, including America, carts, politics
and life in general.
There were many tidbits that made me laugh; some even
caused me to think . . . among those that caught my
attention were the following:
* Here is a lesson in creative writing. First rule: Do not use
semicolons. They are transvestite hermaphrodites representing
absolutely nothing. All they do is show you've been to college.
* I think that novels that leave out technology misrepresent life
as badly as Victorians misrepresented life by leaving out sex.
* If you actually are an educated, thinking person, you will not
be welcome in Washington, DC.
* Do you think Arabs are dumb? They gave us our numbers. Try doing
long division with Roman numerals.
And then there's this one, my favorite:
* If you want to really hurt your parents . . . the least you can do
is go into the arts. I'm not kidding. The arts are not a way to make
a living. They are a very human way of making life more bearable.
Practicing an art, no matter how well or badly, is a way to make
your soul grow, for heaven's sake. Sing in the shower. Dance
to the radio. Tell stories. Write a poem to a friend, even a lousy
poem. Do it as well as you possible can. You will get an enormous
reward. You will have created something.
Unfortunately, Vonnegut died before he was able to finish his next
work, IF GOD WERE ALIVE TODAY--a novel about a comedian.
A Cantankerous Octogenarian Comments on Contemporary Culture
Rating:
My title more or less sums up the book. Kurt Vonnegut is a humorist and a writer, and he just shoots from the hip in this little book, one of the last ones he published before his death. You never know when he is being serious or when he is just (his words) farting around. But he has some sharp words of criticism for a country that will gladly spend billions of dollars on weapons of war, but won't do anything to insure that its own citizens have health care. He also bemoans the fact that technology has so far surpassed him that he can't even keep his typewriter going anymore. He also wears his socialism and his humanism proudly and says that it doesn't matter whether or not you believe in the divine sonship of Jesus because you can still be awestruck by the beauty and simplicity of his Sermon on the Mount.
Because of these "outside the main" positions, Vonnegut feels like a man without a country, thus the title. It's a provocative read, and you could probably read the whole thing in less than two hours. He's an ornery old cuss, and you certainly won't subscribe to everything he says. But what he says is always interesting and entertaining.
A Man Who Sees His End.
Rating:
You can almost feel the words Mr. Vonnegut writes in his last work on this earth. He knows he is near the end, and you sense his frustration that maybe he didn't do as much as he could have done. Whatever that "done" is. But we know this isn't really Kurt's last novel. As I write this he is probably having dinner with the Tralfamadorians--drinking and laughing about how stupid the semicolon is.
silent voice
Rating:
A man without a country is written by an 84 year old man who grew up in the American midwest Depression. He sounds like democratic, as in political ad. He faults George Bush for hating Arabs because they invented algebra. This attempt at humour or satire still obviates the fact that Arabs(fundamental moslems) killed innocents. While admitting he does not believe in heaven or hell, Bush and the country are faced with religious fanactics for the next who knows many years. He considers the Kennedy family a wonderful extended family, but the Bush family somehow a failure. I find him interesting in that he is not a lit major, but a scientist. A man who has not grown up on drugs, a father of 8, but still ignores the big picture. He finds anyone who invented our standards of living should be faulted. As a scientist, he should know that this country has never had a "nuclear" incident, yet does not consider nuclear power as an alternative to petro. His "humour" covers his weakness in his arguments. He hates this country. He critizes "highly educated people, except those who have invented or followed failed political or social engineering.
Even the NYT, Washington Post and other "liberal" groups determined that Bush did win the 1980 election. He honestly believes Gore won because the blacks were disfranchised. He claims Bush and Hitler were Christians. This statement is typical of his views. Is he trying to be satirical.
Not Too Much
Rating:
I hate to admit it, but I've read very little Vonnegut - Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five and Breakfast of Champions are all, in fact. It's not that I don't like him, but he's never been a personal favorite. His books are sometimes too much, if that makes any sense. That said, this collection of essays (I'm not sure what exactly to call it) more accurately reminds why he is considered such an important American author. The quotes at the first of each chapter are memorable; the depictions of life in general are at once humorous and truthful. Vonnegut's sense of humor is witty and clever, and I, for one, am going to give his novels another try.
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