Carries weight with me; I've read everything he's written. The only book I didn't really like was "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater."
To begin reading, go to "Slaughterhouse Five" first, then "The Sirens of Titan".
Yes, and don't stop there. Vonnegut's books are not only hilarious in their overall construction, but they are beautifully written, filled with tiny moments of crystalline beauty:
"To the as-yet-unborn, to all innocent wisps of
undifferentiated nothingness: Watch out for life."
(The opening words of Deadeye Dick)The best thing of all for me is that I discovered him when I was about 14 or 15 years old, which was a perfect time to read him.
If you ever have a chance to see the 1971 public television production "Between Time and Timbuktu or Prometheus-5, a Space Fantasy," do. It's a blenderized version of Vonnegut's work prior to that date (sadly, being stuck in time, they didn't include any of his later works). He says of the screenplay: "This book is said to have been written by me. And I did write it, too, pretty much -- over the past twenty-two years. But it would never have occurred to me to put my words in this particular order.... I began to fool around with the script myself. I grafted the head of a box turtle onto the neck of a giraffe, so to speak -- and so on. Amazingly, chillingly, hilariously, the impossible creature lived for a little while. It was clumsy, funny-looking, and almost pathetically eager to please."
Dave
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