revisting an old friend

I was at a little local bookstore and they had Kurt Vonnegut's last book "A Man without a Country" on sale from $23.95 to $8.95! Of course I bought it, but when I started reading it was as if I was reading Vonnegut for the first time. I don't know what it is, but this man does it for me, he's incredible. Don't believe me, read his books- or ask Quinn he can back me up big time.

I remember the first book I ever read from him, or rather listened to. I bought "Breakfast of Champions" to listen to while I drove from San Francisco back to school. Within the first five minutes I was hooked! I remember stopping and rewinding just because I couldn't believe how brilliant he was. He has this magic way of writing that is so simple/ concise, yet profound and hilarious. I listened to it twice.

When Heath Ledger died I felt bad, but not that bad. When I found out Travis Barker was in a plane crash, it mildly affected me, but when Kurt Vonnegut died I was heart broken. I was so upset/ shocked. More shocked than Heath Ledger and Vonnegut was an old man, Heath was so young. I have since thought about why I was so affected by his death, and I think the reason is that I feel like I discovered Vonnegut for myself, I uncovered the treasure of his literature. It wasn't recommended to me, I happened upon it myself and he was mine. And the reason his death shocked me so much is that it happened no more than a year after my first encounter with him. After reading Breakfast of Champions I moved to Cat's Cradle, Bluebeard, Slaughter House Five, Bagombo Snuffbox. He was my most current obsession and he died at the peak. He died before I could get sick of him. He died soon after our book club had contacted his secretary. He died days after I had been to his website to buy one of his screen prints, which to this day I regret procrastinating about. I remember within hours of hearing about his death I went to the website to buy the print I wanted and the website had been shut down. I had missed my opportunity to own something that Vonnegut himself had touched. My dad once gave an autographed copy of Breakfast of Champions to an ex-girlfriend, and I regret that decision for him....

Anyway, back to "A man without a country".....so it's been a while since I have sat down with a Vonnegut book, any book for that matter- school has robbed me of that luxury. But once I started reading it, it was as if I was reading Vonnegut for the first time. Within seconds I interrupted Dan's own book reading to say, "Dan listen to this" and proceeded to read him sentences from the book. Then I say, "ah! he's just so good, just how he writes! he's so so good!"

R.I.P. Mr. Vonnegut, you have changed my life and I am sorry I could never do the same for you.