Kurt Vonnegut

Timequake (1997) exists in two conjoined versions (?Timequake One?/?Timequake Two?) and in meta-fictional mode is a novel about a novel, composed in short, arbitrary chapters and using its large cast of characters and disoriented chronology to mimic the ?timequake? which is its subject. Some cosmic upheaval has hurled the entire population a decade back where, in full consciousness (but helplessly entrapped) everyone?s pitiable and embarrassing mistakes...

Perhaps the most autobiographical (and deliberately least disciplined) of Vonnegut?s novels, Slapstick (1976) is in the form of a broken family odyssey and is surely a demonstration of its eponymous title. The story centers on brother and sister twins, children of Wilbur Swain, who are in sympathetic and (possibly) telepathic communication and who represent Vonnegut?s relationship with his own sister who died young of cancer almost two decades before...

Second only to Slaughterhouse-Five of Vonnegut?s canon in its prominence and influence, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965) presents Eliot Rosewater, an itinerant, semi-crazed millionaire wandering the country in search of heritage and philanthropic outcome, introducing the science fiction writer Kilgore Trout to the world and Vonnegut to the collegiate audience which would soon make him a cult writer. Trout, modeled according to Vonnegut on the science...