Автор - Курт Воннегут

Наследство Фостера

Невеста на заказ

Нежно-голубой дракон

Ночь для любви

О себе. Предисловие к сборнику рассказов

Предисловие к сборнику рассказов.

Kocia kołyska

Powieść, w której fakt zastępuje miejsce fikcji, a fikcja staje się faktem. Narrator zamierza napisać książkę o wybuchu pierwszej bomby atomowej i życiu jej twórcy, doktora Feliksa Hoenikera. Tymczasem trafia na wyimaginowaną wyspę San Lorenzo, skąd obserwuje rzeczywistą zagładę Ameryki, która miała być tematem jego powieści. Wariacje Vonneguta na temat ludzkiej pomysłowości i zamiłowania do zabaw i gier (doktor Hoeniker stworzył swoją bombę dla zabawy) obrazują kondycję naszej cywilizacji, w której ludzie wolą uciekać w fantazję i kłamstwa, zawierzyć choćby najbardziej nieprawdopodobnej religii niż zmagać się z rzeczywistością i prawdą. Nominowana do nagrody Hugo w 1964.

Mother Night

Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. American Howard W. Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all.

Jailbird

No one can make America into childlike myth like Vonnegut can. Here he takes capitalism, labor history, Sacco-Vanzetti, McCarthyism, and Watergate, and puts them all into the slender memoirs of Walter F. Starbuck - a chauffeur's son who was mentored by the scion of a great and ruthless corporation, was sent to Harvard, but was abandoned when he was caught dabbling in the 1930s left-wing; which meant that Walter had to make his own way as a WW II soldier, Washington civil servant, unintentional stoolie in a Hiss/Chambers-type case, unemployed husband (his concentration-camp-survivor wife supported them with interior decorating), and finally Nixon's token "advisor for youth affairs" and a very minor Watergate convict. So now old Walter is getting out of minimum-security prison (where he has met Vonnegut's Kilgore Trout), without a friend in the world - his wife is dead and his son is "a very unpleasant person. . . a book reviewer for The New York Times" - and with hopes of becoming a bartender somewhere in Manhattan. All this is told in Vonnegut's customary fatless, detail-rich, musical prose (with the usual ironic asides: "And on and on," "Peace," "Strong stuff"), and it's strangely touching, occasionally boldly funny. But as good as he is at building a haunted, hilariously compressed myth out of our shared past, Vonnegut can't keep it from collapsing into silliness when he tries to propel it into the future; Walter's post-prison adventures are so fairy-tale-ish and theme-heavy that they lose that precariously balanced aura of truer-than-true. Once in Manhattan, he meets the major people from his past in one coincidence after another, including his old flame and fellow left-winger Mary Kathleen O'Looney, who is now a N.Y. shopping-bag lady living beneath Grand Central Station - but is she really a bag lady? No! She's really "the legendary Mrs. Jack Graham," neverseen majority stockholder in the all-powerful RAMJAC Corporation. So Walter is suddenly made a corporate bigwig, and, when Mary Kathleen secretly dies, he illegally (but well-meaningly) keeps the company going. . . and winds up a jailbird again. Rich/poor, honest/criminal, management/labor - Vonnegut is playfully exploring the ease with which an American Everyman can alternate between these ostensible extremes. But he has covered much of that ground before - principally in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater - and he himself seems to become bored and mechanical halfway through. Not top-drawer Vonnegut, then, but guilty/innocent Walter is a fine creation, and there's enough of the author's narrative zip to keep fans happy even while the novel fizzles into foolishness. (Kirkus Reviews)

Long Walk To Forever

Cat's Cradle

Cat’s Cradle, in which Vonnegut weaves a satirical commentary on modern man and his madness, is one of the author’s most highly praised novels. Filled with humor and unforgettable characters, this is the apocalyptic story of the end of the Earth, coupled with a vision of the future that is both darkly fantastic and funny.

Player Piano (Utopia 14)

This book is not a book about what is, but a book about what could be. The characters are modeled after persons as yet unborn, or, perhaps, at this writing, infants. It is mostly about managers and engineers. At this point in history, 1952 A.D., our lives and freedom depend largely upon the skill and imagination and courage of our managers and engineers, and I hope that God will help them to help us all stay alive and free. But this book is about another point in history, when there is no more war, and . . .

Rzeźnia numer pięć

W zamyśle autora miała to być jego pierwsza książka. A jednak Vonnegut potrzebował dystansu lat, a także doświadczenia wynikającego z publikacji czterech wcześniejszych powieści, by wreszcie przelać na papier swe doświadczenia z czasów, kiedy jako jeniec wojenny był świadkiem bombardowania Drezna. W rezultacie powstała książka uchodząca za jedną z najwybitniejszych amerykańskich powieści antywojennych; książka o pisarzu, który nie potrafi wymazać z pamięci wspomnień z czasów wojny, chociaż z racji swego zawodu od lat zajmuje się tworzeniem fikcji; książka silnie autobiograficzna, mieszająca dokument z science fiction, pełna trupów i gwałtu, oskarżeń i egzorcyzmów, panicznego strachu i miłości; wreszcie — mówiąc słowami autora — książka „krótka i popaprana, bo o masakrze nie sposób powiedzieć nic inteligentnego”.