Country Comforts

It's easy for a lot of people to dismiss Kurt Vonnegut as a cranky old Jewish fart after reading A Man Without a Country.
But instead of turning into a Grandpa Simpson rant, Vonnegut proves that he's done some research before writing.At 83, there really isn't much left for Vonnegut to accomplish. He's one of the few remaining writers of literature, not books, alive. Yet, like The Daily Show's Jon Stewart, commented. He hasn't lost his edge.
Actually, he seems to possess the same anger George Carlin has against today's society and at one point doesn't hold back on the foul language. Vonnegut has always been one to use curse words whenever needed.A Man Without a Country is in the same league as his previous works, Palm Sunday and Fates Worse Than Death. This is nonfiction instead of fiction. Of course, Vonnegut has always seemed to mix the two together.
In his latest books, he takes stabs mainly at the Bush administration and society in general. He compares today's people to members of Alcoholics Anonymous, living one day at a time with no thought of future plans. But Vonnegut admits that things weren't better when he was younger. Even though he fought in World War II, he says that it wasn't the "Greatest Generation."Once again, Vonnegut also talks about the notorious bombing of Dresden, one of the biggest offensive movements of the allies during that war. Vonnegut never comes out and says it, but he hints that it was one of the most chickenshit moves of the allies, considering that many German citizens were killed. Anyone who's read Slaughterhouse-Five knows how the German troops hid with allied POW as the town was literally wiped off the map.Some critics have wondered why Vonnegut would still talk about this after more than sixty years. Easy. He was there. Many people were killed. Vonnegut himself was of German descent. It was a horrifying thing for all those who survived Dresden to witness.
While Vonnegut criticizes Bush, I wouldn't call him a Democrat. Vonnegut considers himself to be a socialist and even has a part of the book devoted to how America made the socialist movement into a sign of evil in the early 20th Century, even though Socialist believe in the same things Democrats and Republicans do.
A Man Without a Country is a short book. It is only 145 pages and that includes many pages that only have Vonnegut's drawing of his anus. The print is larger than average and I read this over a matter of two days. It is definitely for long time fans. Anyone who hasn't read Vonnegut before needn't start with this one.Read Slaughterhouse-Five, Breakfast of Champions, or Cat's Cradle before this one. Of course, by then, you might have had your fill.Vonnegut isn't for everyone and for many, he definitely wasn't for the "pro-American" sentiments of this early decade. He was basically a man without a country.