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The Novels of Kurt Vonnegut Imagining Being an American
Donald E. Morse
Book Code: GM1914
ISBN: 0-313-31914-6
ISBN-13: 978-0-313-31914-3
232 pages, photo
Praeger Publishers
Publication: 7/30/2003
List Price: $79.95 (UK Sterling Price: £44.95)
Availability: In Stock
Media Type: Hardcover
Trim Size: 6 1/8 x 9 1/4
Subjects: Reviews:
  • Morse intends this study of Vonnegut's peculiarly American identity as a novelist to bring the novelist's work to lay readers, students, and Vonnegut scholars. Intelligent and comprehensive, the book should be successful in this stated goal, joining the dozens of previous studies that have celebrated and analyzed this significant author's simultaneous accessibility and profundity....Recommended. All collections; all levels.
    —Choice     February 2004
  • Morse has done a fine job of casting light on this defining aspect of Vonnegut's work.
    —Utopian Studies     2004
  • [D]iscusses Vonnegut's position as an American pragmatist whose work reflects the power and dignity of the individual and the unfinished evolution of the United States.
    —Brief Mention     .
Description: Vonnegut belongs to what Emerson called the party of hope but hope clearly restricted to this world. This book is the first scholarly study to discuss all of Vonnegut's novels against the background of his other writing, events of the 20th century, and the vast array of Vonnegut scholarship. In his novels he speaks eloquently and succinctly for his generation of Americans--the central generation of 20th-century Americans--thus making him the representative 20th-century American writer. His novels reflect the major traumatic public and private events that have gone into imagining being an American during that century, including the Great Depression, World War II, the Bomb, Vietnam, the weakening of social institutions, the vicissitudes of marriage and family, divorce, growing old, experiencing loss, and anticipating death. The book presents a clear, well-argued view of Vonnegut's work within the context of American literature and history. Like a majority of American writers, Vonnegut is a moralistic novelist but one who employs humor to drive home his ethical points. In many respects he most closely resembles Mark Twain not only in being a highly ethical novelist, but also in his use of comedy. His books serve a remarkable range of purposes: social commentary, theological discussion, ethical argument, parody, satire, and prophecy. His work reflects his strong belief in the dignity and worth of all individuals, and as an American pragmatist, he reminds his readers again and again of the unfinished nature of America.
Table of Contents:
  • Preface
  • Introduction
  • Uttering Our Painful Secret
  • No Reviews and Out of Print
  • Breaking the Silence
  • Under and Inexplicable Sentence of Death
  • Thinking Intelligently, Thinking Ethically about Science, Art, and War
  • Drowning the Book, Breaking the Staff
  • Works Cited and Consulted
  • Index
LC Card Number: 2002192775
LCC Class: PS3572
Dewey Class: 813
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