A Man Without A Country – Kurt Vonnegut

Kurt Vonnegut, one of the most important and unique American writers, died recently. Most commonly known for his book Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut wrote many other books. He also known for including his own artwork and doodles in his books and for also having an eccentric and original style of writing. You can visit this website to view Vonnegut’s complete works, as well as read a more complete biography.

I recently finished his last book, A Man Without a Country. It was a very quick read, being a short 140 pages (I read it entirely on a two hour plane ride). This book is somewhat different from some of his other works; it is not a novel, instead it is written in the form of a memoir. The Los Angeles Times pointed out: this may be the closest thing to a memoir that we ever see from Vonnegut; because of his recent death I suppose this must now be true. It’s differences aside, like all of his works that I have read, I throughly enjoyed every single page. Contained within this book were the same themes and subjects which Vonnegut’s other books were applauded for; although they were more explicit in form. In my view this explicit language enabled Vonnegut to explain some of his views, that I had long misunderstood. Vonnegut explains his views on socialism, music, life, religion and reality with the same wit and humor that he always employed.  I now understand what Vonnegut means by saying that he is a humanist.  Seriously take a look at his comments on religion in this book.

Vonnegut comments on may things in this book, even electronic communities. He stated, “Electronic communities build nothing. You wind up with nothing. We are dancing animals. How beautiful it is to get up and go out and do something. We are here on earth to fart around. Don’t let anyone tell you any different.” Which is an interesting topic. There are no physical connects with things like Facebook or MySpace(or any of the many similar online communities), so what is there true value. Vonnegut certainly was an advocate of getting out and meeting people…in the real world. He would go outside in order to talk to strangers about almost any topic solely to learn more about his fellow men. He explains this view’s importance clearly in A Man Without a Country. This book is worth reading. Read it quickly and take its lessons to heart, I’m going to go talk to some strangers outside.