AND SO IT GOES : KURT VONNEGUT, A LIFE
by Charles J. Shields

While he was alive, there were no entries in dictionaries about him. Critics were always hard on his writings dismissing them. He was much loved, though, by the young (college-aged) crowd. But his life in public and what he wrote in his books was a complete contradiction to his private persona. He was never a happy camper and always felt lonely.
Kurt Vonnegut grew up in a home with servants. His father, Kurt Sr., was an architect and his mother, Edith, was barely a parent. They entertained quite lavishly but never hugged their children. Kurt Jr.'s older brother, Bernard, was favored because he was gifted (he became a scientist), so he got the attention. The only time Kurt Jr. felt wanted was during the summer when the Vonnegut family would go to Lake Maxinkuckee in Indiana. Other relatives would be there for him lending support and sympathy. (Having an extended family was one of the features in his books.)
Nobody listened to him (he was the youngest child) and the only way he could change that was to tell ridiculous stories that made people laugh. Humor became one of his strengths which he would use later in life when he would appear at events.
High school is when he began to write and it would become all-consuming to him. He also picked up two bad vices: alcohol and cigarettes (he smoked only Pall Malls) and could never shake off these addictions.
By the time Vonnegut was in college (Cornell and a science major), he was writing pretty steadily. He never graduated and enlisted in the army and became part of the 106th division that were captured by the Germans. (He saw the bombing of Dresden.) All of the POWs were housed in a huge slaughterhouse (supposed to be used for animals). The name of the compound was Schlachthof-Funf: Slaughterhouse-Five.
When Vonnegut returned from the war, he got married and he and his wife had four children. Soon enough, there would be four more but they would be his sister's boys. She died of cancer and her husband was killed in a train crash. Vonnegut was a terrible father. He ignored his kids (they thought of him more as a friend) because he was always holed up in his study writing. His relationship with his wife wasn't much better (he had dalliances on the side). They lived pretty meagerly since he was the sole breadwinner. He had written quite a few articles for magazines and a couple of novels but nobody knew who he was. Slaughterhouse-Five finally put him on the map and he really never had to write another book again. At the age of fifty, he was wealthy.
Having read Vonnegut's novels in high school and college, I never really considered what the man was like behind his writings. Charles J. Shields has brought him to the surface and it's very revealing. It took Shields five years to compose his research from interviews with Vonnegut, friends, family, neighbors and fifteen hundred letters. He gives you such a bird's-eye view that you feel as if you are a part of an intimate story.
The book is a real page-turner and very engrossing.
Highly recommended.