Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. Audio Collection

by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. himself reads from his most celebrated works: Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse-Five, and three complete stories from Welcome to the Monkey House.

Genres: Fiction, Audiobook

4 pages, Audio Cassette

First published January 19, 1995

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

[Mark · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories were duplicates of some other things I've consumed, but the narration made this hard to hear. It sounded like it had echo, like maybe it was recorded in a room with hard surfaces without careful consideration for sound absorption and mic quality. My $100 mic sounds much better. It's too bad because the book is better than the recording, even though I heard much of it from other of his books.

[Doctor Thunder · Rating 5 out of 5]

I forgot how much I loved these books. They seem somewhat abridged here but it's great to hear them in Kurt's voice. Going to have to go back and read them in print again, and see which ones I've missed, though I've read at least 15 of his over the years. So it goes.

[Justin Griffith · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great collection of a prolific writer.

[John Harris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Good pieces of Vonnegut major works

[Dan · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is the author reading excerpts from some of his works. I've read the books before, and this is a great refresher of some of his best material. I don't know if this would have been as good if I hadn't already read the books.
There are some complete short stories and essays at the end, including Harrison Bergeron, which is one of his best.
All in all great stuff.

[Johnsergeant · Rating 1 out of 5]

Downloaded from Audible.com

This title no longer seems to be available at audible.com.

If I recall correctly, it was very disappointing. I like Kurt Vonnegut's writing, but this was a poor quality audiobook.

[Lori Tian Sailiata · Rating 5 out of 5]

Always a treat hearing the author read his own work. I listened in via Hawaii State Library and OverDrive Audiobooks.

[Larry · Rating 5 out of 5]

It was good to hear Kurt Vonnegut.