Despite being hailed by so many as a
genius, Kurt Vonnegut felt that the literary establishment never took
him seriously. Photograph: Crescent/Everett /Rex Features
A new
biography of acclaimed American author
Kurt Vonnegut,
beloved by fans worldwide for his work's warm humour and homespun
Midwestern wisdom, has shocked many with a portrayal of a bitter, angry
man prone to depression and fits of temper.
The book on Vonnegut,
who died in 2007, lifts the lid on the writer's private life, revealing a
man far removed from the grandfather-like public figure his millions of
devotees adored.
And So It Goes was written by Charles Shields, who also wrote a controversial biography of Harper Lee, author of
To Kill A Mockingbird.
The book paints a picture of a man who was often distant from his
children, cruel to a long-suffering first wife, caught in an unpleasant
second marriage and spent much of his later years depressed and angry.
"Cruel, nasty and scary are the adjectives commonly used to describe him
by the friends, colleagues, and relatives Shields quotes," wrote one
reviewer, Wendy Smith, on the
Daily Beast website. The
New York Times reviewer, Chris Buckley, called Shields's portrayal "sad, often heartbreaking".
Through novels such as
The Sirens of Titan,
Cat's Cradle and the classic
Slaughterhouse-Five,
Vonnegut's career spanned five decades, often working in the science
fiction genre, and catapulted him into the canon of great American
writers. His work, while often dealing with tragedy, was famed for
espousing humanitarian, even socialist values, and often had a strong
anti-war, anti-capitalist feel. It is full of references to the virtues
of small-town life, volunteer firefighters and the Midwest, especially
his home city of Indianapolis.
Yet Shields's book is unsparing in
its portrayal of Vonnegut's dark side. It reveals that the writer –
whose experience as a PoW during the firebombing of Dresden scarred his
psyche for life – had no qualms about investing in firms that made
napalm or indulged in a host of other morally suspect activities. He
fell out with friends, editors and relatives and had a shocking temper.
In later life he appeared deeply bitter and lonely. In the opening part
of the book Shields describes meeting Vonnegut just a few months before
his death. He describes Vonnegut asking him to look up his name in a
dictionary (it was not there) and then look up Jack Kerouac (it was
there). "How about that?" Vonnegut then states with a frown. The chapter
of Shields's book dealing with Vonnegut's final 15 years of life is
called simply "Waiting to Die".
"Towards the end he was very
feeble, very depressed and almost morose. I think that slants this
book," said Jerome Klinkowitz, an academic at the University of Northern
Iowa and one of the world's leading experts on Vonnegut.
"It is a
little naive to be surprised by this," said Gregory Sumner of the
University of Detroit Mercy, who recently wrote a book exploring
Vonnegut's work, called
Unstuck In Time. "Personal relationships were difficult for him. He had a lot of survivor's guilt."
Vonnegut
definitely had survived a lot. His once wealthy family was impoverished
by the Great Depression, causing grim strains in his parents' marriage.
His mother committed suicide. His beloved sister died of breast cancer,
a day after her husband was killed in a train accident. But the
defining horror of Vonnegut's life was his wartime experience and
surviving the Dresden bombing, only to be sent into the ruins as prison
labour in order to collect and burn the corpses. The ordeal cropped up
continually in his work, but most notably formed the basis of
Slaughterhouse-Five, the book that made Vonnegut famous.
But
there was more to it than just coping with such traumatic situations.
In later life, despite being hailed by so many as an American genius,
Vonnegut felt that the literary establishment never took him seriously.
They interpreted his simplistic style, love of science fiction and
Midwestern values as being beneath serious study.
The book will do
little to dampen enthusiasm for Vonnegut's work. "He's not a relic of
the 1960s. His work is vibrant today even posthumously," said Sumner.
"Maybe we just expect too much of our heroes."
