LOOK AT THE BIRDIE is a collection of fourteen previously unpublished stories by the twentieth century master
Kurt Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922 and studied biochemistry at Cornell University. During WWII, as a prisoner of war in Germany, he witnessed the destruction of Dresden by Allied bombers, an experience which inspired Slaughterhouse Five. Vonnegut's black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America's attention in The Sirens of Titan in 1959 and according to Harper's Magazine, established him as 'a true artist' with Cat's Cradle in 1963. He was, as Graham Greene declared, 'one of the best living American writers'. Vonnegut died in April 2007.
The wittiest man since Groucho Marx and the wisest since Karl
Marx
*The Times*
For the last years of his life, Vonnegut was our sage and
chain-smoking truth teller... Why these stories went unpublished is
hard to answer. They're polished, they're relentlessly fun to read,
and every last one of them comes to a neat and satisfying end
*New York Times Review of Books*
These [stories] date from early in his literary career in the early
to mid-Fifties, but already they show the hallmarks of Vonnegut's
distinctive voice and style - that unique mixture of knowingness
and wide-eyed innocence, warmth and cynicism, guile and
simplicity.... Not too difficult to see why he didn't manage to
place these stories at the time - the early Fifties wasn't ready
for such darkness and lightly-worn subversion. Terrific
*Daily Mail*
What is surprising about these 14 short stories written by the
master satirist during the 1950s, is that not one has been
published before. it is not for want of quality: they are rather
wonderful... They are uncharacterisable, but so was Vonnegut (The
New York Times said it best in calling him the laughing proophet of
doom). The opening tale, Confido, starts the collection as it means
to go on: it is mischievious, nutty and astute
*The Times*
The fourteen unpublished stories in Look at the Birdie are as
outlandish and well turned as anything he wrote, displaying his
impish playfulness. Most authors spend a lifetime finding their
voice. Here we see that Vonnegut's was well-established at the
start of his career: tightly plotted yet loose in style; spry;
sporadic if not downright acerbic, yet with plenty of laughter in
the dark. [...] warm, generous and uncompromising spirit behind
this collection.
*Times Literary Supplement*
This collection of unpublished fiction sheds light on Vonnegut's early writing, but fails to measure up to the rest of his formidable oeuvre. The stories are brief, vividly imagined and sometimes carry a science-fictional twist with a moral (of sorts), not unlike "Harrison Bergeron." In "Confido," for instance, an inventor manufactures a device that whispers to its users everything they want to hear, with special emphasis on their worst desires and suspicions, while the title story describes an interaction at a bar between a disgruntled man and a self-styled "murder counselor" who has come up with an ingenious method for killing people. Sidney Offit, Vonnegut's longtime friend, notes in an introduction that it's possible these stories went unpublished because they didn't satisfy the author. To be sure, they lack the polish and humor of the author's best-known work. Nevertheless, for devotees, they provide an instructive view of Vonnegut's talent in the making. (Nov.) Copyright 2009 Reed Business Information.
The wittiest man since Groucho Marx and the wisest since Karl Marx
* The Times *
For the last years of his life, Vonnegut was our sage and
chain-smoking truth teller... Why these stories went unpublished is
hard to answer. They're polished, they're relentlessly fun to read,
and every last one of them comes to a neat and satisfying end --
Dave Eggers * New York Times Review of Books *
These [stories] date from early in his literary career in the
early to mid-Fifties, but already they show the hallmarks of
Vonnegut's distinctive voice and style - that unique mixture of
knowingness and wide-eyed innocence, warmth and cynicism, guile and
simplicity.... Not too difficult to see why he didn't manage to
place these stories at the time - the early Fifties wasn't ready
for such darkness and lightly-worn subversion. Terrific
* Daily Mail *
What is surprising about these 14 short stories written by the
master satirist during the 1950s, is that not one has been
published before. it is not for want of quality: they are rather
wonderful... They are uncharacterisable, but so was Vonnegut
(The New York Times said it best in calling him the laughing
proophet of doom). The opening tale, Confido, starts the collection
as it means to go on: it is mischievious, nutty and astute -- David
Hayles * The Times *
The fourteen unpublished stories in Look at the Birdie are
as outlandish and well turned as anything he wrote, displaying his
impish playfulness. Most authors spend a lifetime finding their
voice. Here we see that Vonnegut's was well-established at the
start of his career: tightly plotted yet loose in style; spry;
sporadic if not downright acerbic, yet with plenty of laughter in
the dark. [...] warm, generous and uncompromising spirit behind
this collection. -- Neil Fitzgerald * Times Literary Supplement
*
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