A man without a country
2005
- politics and government
- american authors
- biography
- memoir
- american novelists
- vonnegut, kurt, 1922-2007
- authors, biography
- united states, politics and government, 2001-2009
The story
In questi dodici interventi (originariamente pubblicati sulla rivista radicale In These Times, poi snobbati dalla grande editoria americana e raccolti in volume da una coraggiosa casa editrice indipendente che negli Stati Uniti ne ha fatto un bestseller da 350.000 copie), Kurt Vonnegut ci offre il suo punto di vista sull'America e sul mondo di oggi. Traendo ispirazione di volta in volta da Mark Twain, Gesù Cristo, Abraham Lincoln e i socialisti di inizio Novecento, critica ferocemente il neoimperialismo e il capitalismo malato delle multinazionali, ma lo fa con uno stile frizzante e discorsivo che apre a continue digressioni: dalle dichiarazioni d'amore per il blues alle geniali riletture naif di Kafka e Shakespeare, dai ricordi del bombardamento di Dresda a quelli dello spinello fumato coi Grateful Dead, il tutto accompagnato da illustrazioni realizzate dall'autore stesso.
What it’s like
Loose, wry, and conversational, this book reads like an old man talking across a kitchen table: short essays that wander from anger at the government to a riff on Kafka or Shakespeare, then to a memory of blues records or a stoned afternoon with the Grateful Dead. Its texture is plain American prose, dry and quick, with sentences that double back and punchlines that land on a single word. Scattered through the pages are the author's own crude pen drawings, small and faintly absurd, which give it the feel of a sketchbook. The mood is part elegy, part indignation, and mostly affectionate, as if the writer is fond of the reader and tired of his country. Digressions keep it moving, so it suits a rainy Sunday, a few pages before bed, or a slow commute where each essay can stand alone. Politics is front and centre: it attacks corporate power, empire, and the state of the nation, and it brings up the firebombing of Dresden and other war memories in a matter-of-fact way, with death present but never lingered over in gore. It is not gentle in its opinions but is warm in its manner. Best for readers who enjoy sharp, humane political commentary and a voice that mixes despair with jokes.
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