and so it goes book

Yes, Vonnegut built a bridge for millions of youngsters to cross from science fiction to literature. For the next year—a year that ended up being Vonnegut's last—Shields had access to Vonnegut and his letters.And So It Goes is the culmination of five years of research and writing—the first-ever biography of the life of Kurt Vonnegut. What a thoroughly researched and gripping yet melancholic read that left me with 36 pages of notes and a sense of familiarity that I'm glad to have in the future as I go through Vonnegut's works. If nothing else, slaughterhouse 5 establishes Vonnegut's place in American lit, that tenderly raging story. I cannot recommend this book highly enough; not only will you have read an excellent account of a life, you will gain a deeper understanding of the often dark places from which iconic––and ironic––fiction is produced. Yes, absolutely. I'm not sure I've read a biography before in which the author takes such apparent delight in dissing his subject. His inventive imagining and placing human feelings into inhuman scenarios reflect a chaotic modern world. Charles J. Shields seems to really not like Kurt Vonnegut. Some interesting insights on vonnegut's early life and his struggles with writing but this was longer than it needed to be.

Clearly this is the man to write the first full-length biography of bouffant satirical demigod Kurt Vonnegut. In 2006, Charles Shields reached out to Kurt Vonnegut in a letter, asking for his endorsement for a planned biography.

Yes, that was pretty terrible, although less awful than most biographies of female writers (much less prurient description of Vonnegut's love life, for one thing). We’d love your help. Which, in a certain way, was what happened. CLEARLY. But given the unbearable circumstances of his life, a mother who committed suicide, a beloved sister dying young of cancer and being a not only a prisoner of war but being imprisoned while the Americans bombed Dresden, where he was held, it was miraculous that he wasn't worse. See details.

This birth-to-death biography of Vonnegut contains some interesting moments but fails to completely satisfy. He wanted to be a better creator than his creator, but he was flawed in the same ways he felt god was fla.

A friend got this for me for my birthday. It was also unsettling how we were just supposed to unquestioningly accept Vonnegut's second wife as a cast-iron bitch, probably because she chose not to cooperate with the biographer (see: Ted Hughes, Sonia Orwell, &c &c). His presentation keeps the narrative moving and he holds the reader from cover to cover. Vonnegut initially refused to grant an interview to Shields (author of the bestselling Mockingbird), but then relented, enabling Shields to meet him during the last months of his life. But here we are, here it is, so it goes, and so on. The first authoritative biography of Kurt Vonnegut Jr., a writer who changed the conversation of American literature, In 2006, Charles Shields reached out to Kurt Vonnegut in a letter, asking for his endorsement for a planned biography. The first time I read Vonnegut was in high school, Mr. Milheim's English class. It examines two marriages tha. But for people like me, who only know him through reading a few of his books, this is a fascinating, if depressing, story. Shields’s own hack background clearly mirrors Vonnegut’s career chasing moolah in the slicks, so any protests on that front are churlish. Wow! This is a problem since the market for this book is people who do like Kurt Vonnegut. Charles J. Shields seems to really not like Kurt Vonnegut. They are two very different things. I found Shields interjecting so. Stories of Vonnegut's early life, especially his education, time in the military and early professional life working in PR for General Electric shed a lot of light on the man.

He was never satisfied with telling a story straight or leaving any of his characters alone to wrestle with the fates he gave them by themselves.

There is no doubt that Kurt Vonnegut was a deeply flawed and troubled person, quick to anger, a user of those who thought they could trust him, a philanderer and a distant father. Shields rightly foregrounds Vonnegut’s harrowing WWII experience and its effect on an exceedingly complex psyche. The twenty-first century has seen interest in and scholarship about Vonnegut's works grow even stronger, and this is the first book to examine in full the life of one of the most influential iconoclasts of his time. Like him or not, he will remain, for time immemorial, the first and only man to have authority from The Master to write a full-length bio (or, at least, a vague thumbs-u. Vonnegut resonates with readers of all generations from the baby boomers who grew up with him to high-school and college students who are discovering his work for the first time. After all, one of the reasons that I connected to Vonnegut's work so much is our shared understanding of absurdist cynicism. The publisher has supplied this book in DRM Free form with digital watermarking. I read this book several years ago, and in my memory it remains an important contemporary biography. There is no doubt that Kurt Vonnegut was a deeply flawed and troubled person, quick to anger, a user of those who thought they could trust him, a philanderer and a distant father. The best part of the book is at the very beginning, past the awful part where he talks about how he got to write the book, the part about Vonnegut's family and school years. Which, in a certain way, was what happened. I had a difficult time with the beginning of this book. Vonnegut's concise collection of personal essays, Man Without a Country, published in 2006, spent fifteen weeks on the New York Times bestseller list and has sold more than 300,000 copies to date. Biography is the story of a life, and when that life ends, so must the biography. Like him or not, he will remain, for time immemorial, the first and only man to have authority from The Master to write a full-length bio (or, at least, a vague thumbs-up from a doddery moribund man who he spoke to twice). Not at all. Shields delivers a vivid recreation of Vonnegut's ghastly WWII experiences as a POW during the Dresden firebombing that became the basis for Slaughterhouse-Five; the novel brought him overnight fame when it was serialized in Ramparts magazine and then published in a month when 453 Americans were killed in Vietnam. On a personal note, if "And So It Goes" and Vonnegut's life feature a villain it is Vonnegut's second wife Jill Krementz.

Clearly this is the man to write the first full-length biography of bouffant satirical demigod Kurt Vonnegut. Every time I read a new book of KV criticism, I huff and sneer demeaningly thinking, “Pfff, I could write that because I’m so great; I just haven't done it yet.” Shields' biography is what I could only dream of writing. And I'm not saying that just because of all the dirty laundry about his personal life, but because he has no appreciation for his actual literary work. This first authorized biography probes both Vonnegut's creative struggles and family life, detailing his transition from "the bowery of the book world" to counterculture icon. He told his readers to be kind while never making much room for it in his own life.

Just a moment while we sign you in to your Goodreads account. This is a problem since the market for this book is people who do like Kurt Vonnegut. AND SO IT GOES!!! I just finished And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut a Life by Charles Shields.

The first half of the book flew by much quicker while the second half dragged a little, but I feel like that could just be a mirror to Vonnegut's life and life in general rather than the author's fault. Shields does a very good job researching and humanizing Vonnegut. Shields is at his best early in the work. It could also apply to a man many viewed as being the literary hero of the counterculture. This could easily be one of the most jilted half-assed biographies I've ever read. It makes me a little sad, but close reading of Vonnegut's nonfiction pieces alerted me long ago to his bitterness and mean spirit. I should start by saying that I rarely read biographies.

It arrives during a year of renewed interest in Vonnegut, such as this year's Library of America's Kurt Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1963 1973, and Gregory D. Sumner's Unstuck in Time: A Journey Through Kurt Vonnegut's Life and Novels, also due in Nov. Kurt initially refuses the request and then eventually allows it. For anyone who thinks “successful” writers get there simply on the basis of their talent and then comfortably slip into that role, AND SO IT GOES… will disabuse them of that fantasy.

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