We Are What We Pretend To Be: The First and Last Works

by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Paperback

About the author

Kurt Vonnegut, Junior was an American novelist, satirist, and most recently, graphic artist. He was recognized as New York State Author for 2001-2003.

He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked as a journalist before joining the U.S. Army and serving in World War II.

After the war, he attended University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology and also worked as a police reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. He left Chicago to work in Schenectady, New York in public relations for General Electric. He attributed his unadorned writing style to his reporting work.

His experiences as an advance scout in the Battle of the Bulge, and in particular his witnessing of the bombing of Dresden, Germany whilst a prisoner of war, would inform much of his work. This event would also form the core of his most famous work, Slaughterhouse-Five, the book which would make him a millionaire. This acerbic 200-page book is what most people mean when they describe a work as "Vonnegutian" in scope.

Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed humanist and socialist (influenced by the style of Indiana's own Eugene V. Debs) and a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union.

The novelist is known for works blending satire, black comedy and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973)

Reviews

[Ronnie · Rating 4 out of 5]

"I could have become anything instead of what you see and hear tonight," he said onstage of all his opportunities.

This miniature collection of just two stories that bookended Vonnegut's career is a gem. The first is interesting because of its autobiographical elements but definitely reads like juvenalia, even though his daughter Nanette says in the Foreword her dad was almost 30 when he wrote it. The second novella, though, is fascinating, riotous, funny, relentless, irreverent, and no-holds-barred, with sentences spraying as if from machine gun. Written 50 years after the first piece, the second (unfinished) story seems to erupt from the pen or typewriter of someone who has no more shits to give, and it's pretty awesome to behold.

First lines [of the superior, pyrotechnical "If God Were Alive Today"]:
"When artificial intelligence was perfected, the most respected manufactured brain was at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. It had chosen its own name, which was 'M.I.T.'"

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

Accidentally came upon this at the library. I loved Basic Training.

If God Were Alive Today was just ok. The story and my feelings while reading it reminded me of a quote from Trey Anastasio from when Phish broke up in 2004 that I somehow remembered (so weird bc I don't even really like Phish), "We don’t want to become caricatures of ourselves, or worse yet, a nostalgia act." The story, tone, etc. was classic Vonnegut but didn't feel like anything new. And, I'm not the same person anymore who was so captivated by his earlier works.

I'm still glad I read the book though. It felt like a nice way of saying goodbye.

[David · Rating 4 out of 5]

when I started the first book I didn't know where Kurt was going, was there a point, but as I kept reading things fell into place and it turned out to be an excellent coming of age story, you can see vonngutes talent.

the second book started out with a bang, a brilliant caustic comic, Vonnegut wrote the punch lines which were excellent. the comic is an interesting character with an interesting background, but then I thought he's more a mouth piece for voneguts political views, the narraotor (Kurt) says he's politically incorrect but his views are very mainstream ie global warming, and the "jokes" and the plot seemed to go over my head. I struggled to finish line.

[Amy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Interesting to read Vonnegut’s first and last novella. I haven’t read one of his books in awhile, but his voice still rings strongly in each of these stories. I particularly enjoyed Basic Training. And although the second story was a bit of a jumble, I loved his character of Gil.

[John]

(no 67 of 2025)

Skip it. First works are notoriously hard to read. Unpublished final works are worse.