Slaughterhouse 1945

Something everyone should read.

I’ve got the book but haven’t read it yet. Since I can’t make it to Charlottesville with a can of mace, maybe I’ll read it over the holiday.

KV was one of my favs.

Posted by poputonian on 07/03/08 at 04:58 PM • Permalink

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Wow, incredible letter. I was a huge KV fan too. Got to meet him once at a college speaking engagement (I was a backstage worker bee). He was very much as you might expect.

Comment by Betty Cracker on 07/03/08 at 06:12 PM

He had claimed to be a hack writer until he wrote Slaughterhouse Five in what ‘68? But this 1945 letter is so Vonnegut ... the paragraphs ending with ‘But not me’ are especially poignant.

Comment by poputonian on 07/03/08 at 06:22 PM

I’ve been reading a WW2 trilogy penned by a former Wapo editor named Rick Atkinson. The writers that came out of that war, Pyle, Sevareid, Vonnegut, the fella who wrote Catch-22 (Heller) is amazing.

Atkinson wisely relies upon their recollections and the recollections of both the dogfaces and the generals to tell his tale, it’s a must-read, brilliantly written, engaging, suspenseful and chock full of info.

Did you know that during the invasion of Italy at Salerno one supply ship was stocked to the gills with mustard gas and that during an air raid, Luftwaffe planes hit the ship killing and maiming hundreds of sailors, but also thousands of Italian civilians who died from the gas?

And we’re the ones constantly screaming about WMD. Hell, some of our leftover stockpile of VX, GB and mustard gas went directly to Saddam, which he then used first against the Iranians and then against the Kurds.

Comment by HumboldtBlue on 07/03/08 at 07:16 PM

Indeedy ... the Rumsfailed - Saddam photo op!

Comment by poputonian on 07/03/08 at 08:19 PM
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