A Man Without A Country

Book #3 of my 2006 reading list was Kurt Vonnegut's A Man Without A Country. I got this one via a gift certificate (thanks Mom and Dad).

Vonnegut is one of my absolute favorite writers so before I even attempt to review this one I should let you know that in my opinion the man is a genius. If he was a company I would own stock so consider this your full disclosure.

Okay, now that we've got that out of the way we can get down to the book at hand. At its heart it's a collection of short loosely structured essays in which Vonnegut muses on politics (he's a Socialist), religion (he's a Humanist), life (he's a Luddite), humor and whatever else happens to strike his fancy. Ever seen that 'He Who Wanders Is Not Always Lost' bumper sticker? They should slap one of those right on the front cover. If you're a Vonnegut fan you'll find it endearing and entertaining, if not you may just pull your hair out. The style is effective in that it allows Vonnegut to basically share everything that's on his mind. Consider it a brain dump from a wise old man.

One of the things that struck me the most about this book is Vonnegut's obvious thirst for knowledge. He's constantly dropping in little tidbits of information not because they're particularly germane to the discussion, but because they're interesting and fun to share. For instance did you know the word shrapnel was named after British Major-General Henry Shrapnel or that Confucious actually coined the term 'Do unto others as you'd have done unto you' 500 years before Jesus? The book is chock full of these kinds of things, leaving me thorougly convinced that a real-life conversation with Vonnegut would be absolutely fascinating. Perhaps something like talking to that kid from Jerry Maguire. God bless you Mr. Vonnegut.

Many of the essays in the book can be found on-line on In These Times.

Kurt Vonnegut's Homepage