Publisher's Synopsis
The creator of such celebrated novels as ""Breakfast of Champions"", ""Cat's Cradle"" and ""Slaughterhouse 5"", Kurt Vonnegut blended the bizarrely hypothetical with the gut-wrenchingly actual, infusing his writing with a biting wit and a bleak worldview influenced by his service in World War II and his time as a prisoner of war. This critical examination of each of Vonnegut's works sheds new light on one of America's greatest authors. Through early drafts of projects like ""Slaughterhouse 5"", ""Breakfast of Champions"" and ""Harrison Bergeron,"" substantially different from the books, Gary McMahon peers over the shoulder of a great writer. The reader has the rare chance to see the original manuscripts while considering the complete works, from ""Player Piano"" to ""Armageddon in Retrospect"". The text includes a rare comparison of Vonnegut's journalism with peers like Hunter Thompson and Tom Wolfe.
