RIP Kurt Vonnegut

There are definitely enough eloquent obituaries for Mr. Vonnegut at this point, and I certainly would be able to add much, but I was saddened enough by his death that I felt I had to write something. Mr. Vonnegut left a huge impression on me as a teenager. I found so much pleasure in his wit and imagination, and was always struck by the brilliance behind the bafoonery. Cat's Cradle was something of a personal intellectual landmark for me, representing possibilities in literature that I was not taught in school. And of course, the more I read, the more I appreciated his work. I'm sorry to say that I haven't read a Kurt Vonnegut novel in some time, but have vowed to revisit some of those books I found so important.

Little did I know, Mr. Vonnegut suffered a fall a few weeks ago. He had been hospitalized and finally succumbed to brain injuries from the fall yesterday, April 12, 2007. He was 84.