"And So It Goes" - A life of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Be careful what you wish for...

For a writer that made such a spectacular splash with his 1969 novel, "Slaughterhouse Five," and had a fairly sizable output that still attracts fans, it's curious that Charles Shield's terrific biography of Kurt Vonnegut Jr., “And So It Goes” is really the first serious look at his life.

Unfortunately for the people that want to think of him as a secular saint, the book draws a pretty comprehensive picture of a very sad and troubled man who labored most of his life fighting the painful circumstances of his childhood, his experiences in the war, and his long attempts to become a commercially successful "serious" writer while trying to be a father to six children in a marriage that was slowly falling apart.

Vonnegut was born into a no-nonsense, well-to-do German family that lived well until the Depression wiped out most of their work and wealth, leading Kurt to struggle between trying to become a writer that could pay the bills while his family urged him to find a more practical way to make a living. He took newspaper jobs which helped hone his future writing style, while he also took biochemistry courses.

World War II was a major turning point for Vonnegut. Enlisting in the Army, his unit was sent to what was supposed to be a quiet sector of the front but was overrun during the Battle of the Bulge. He wound up a prisoner of war in the city of Dresden, where he survived the firebombing that killed over 35,000 people and destroyed most of the city only because the prisoners were kept in a concrete meat locker three stories below street level.

This, of course, became the basis of "Slaughterhouse Five" but the book had a troubled birth. Vonnegut knew it was good story material, but didn't know how to shape it. He had done nothing more heroic than survive the bombing by luck and he hadn't witnessed it, only experienced the aftermath.

Instead, he wrote clever science fiction short stories and satiric novels based on his experiences in the business world, including the still-sharp “Harrison Bergeron” where all citizens are made to be “equal” by giving them physical handicaps - strong people are straped with weights, those with good hearing wear headphones to muffle them, people with good eyesight wear distorting glasses, and so on.

These were well received but science fiction writers weren't (and still aren't to a large degree) considered "serious" writers, plus there was no lack of World War II books written by combat veterans that were already out and gathering serious acclaim.

It wasn't until Vonnegut realized he could fragment his Dresden experiences into a time-hopping science fiction narrative told from his time kept in an alien zoo with a porn star as a companion that the book fell into place.

The book, published during the heights of the public's dissatisfaction with the Vietnam War, became a critical and commercial success, even as Vonnegut's personal life was becoming increasing problematic, leaving a string of broken friendships and relationships in his wake.

Professionally, Vonnegut was riding high, but artistically he was facing a writer's worst nightmare; he realized he didn't have anything new to say. He struggled with the follow-up, "Breakfast of Champions" which came out to mixed reviews and instead found it more profitable and satisfying to become a public gadfly for social/socialist causes while putting out books that critics felt were rehashes of previous themes until his death in 2007.

There's really only two audiences for the book: writers, and Vonnegut's admirers. Judging from some of the other reviews for the book from fans, a good number of them aren't happy, claiming its an unnecessarily negative look, as well as giving only cursory looks at his later works.

While that may be true, as a writer though I found it fascinating for the way it really dug into how Vonnegut conceived his stories and novels, using his experiences from the places he worked and people he knew, and converting them into his settings and characters.

It was also interestiing too in detailing how Vonnegut dealt with the more mundane pressures of life, dealing with a marriage that had six kids, three of his own and three from his beloved sister who died of cancer. Given the pressures he was under, it's perhaps understandable that his behavior swung wildly from warm and loving to cold and distant.

In the end, the book is probably one of the best illustrations of the old adage, "Be careful what you wish for...it might come true." Vonnegut's entire life was a quest to become a successful mainstream writer. He achieved that goal, but if the book is right, it didn't make him happy either with himself or with the world, dying a disillusioned man.

So it goes...