{"product_id":"kurt-vonnegut-the-last-interview-isbn-9781612190907","title":"Kurt Vonnegut: The Last Interview","description":"\u003cb\u003eOne of the great American  iconoclasts holds forth on politics, war, books and writers, and his  personal life in a series of conversations, including his last published  interview. \u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eDuring his long career Kurt Vonnegut won international praise for his novels, plays, and essays. In this new anthology of conversations with Vonnegut—which collects interviews from throughout his career—we learn much about what drove Vonnegut to write and how he viewed his work at the end.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cu\u003e\u003cb\u003eFrom Kurt Vonnegut's last interview\u003c\/b\u003e\u003c\/u\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eIs there another book in you, by chance?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eNo. Look, I’m 84 years old. Writers of fiction have usually done their best work by the time they’re 45. Chess masters are through when they’re 35, and so are baseball players. There are plenty of other people writing. Let them do it.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSo what’s the old man’s game, then?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eMy country is in ruins. So I’m a fish in a poisoned fishbowl. I’m mostly just heartsick about this. There should have been hope. This should have been a great country. But we are despised all over the world now. I was hoping to build a country and add to its literature. That’s why I served in World War II, and that’s why I wrote books.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWhen someone reads one of your books, what would you like them to take from the experience?\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eWell, I’d like the guy—or the girl, of course—to put the book down and think, “This is the greatest man who ever lived.”“Like Mark Twain and Abraham  Lincoln, even when he’s funny, he’s depressed. . . . The way he goes about his business  has helped most \u2028of us to go on living, if only to  find out what happens next.”\u2028\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—John Leonard, \u003ci\u003eThe  Nation\u003c\/i\u003e \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “He is a satirist with  a heart, a moralist with a whoopee cushion, \u2028a cynic who wants to believe.”\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e —Jay  McInerney \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e “Vonnegut is our strongest  writer . . .  the most stubbornly imaginative.”\u2028\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—John Irving\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003eKurt Vonnegut\u003c\/b\u003e's black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America’s attention in \u003ci\u003eThe Sirens of Titan\u003c\/i\u003e in 1959 and established him as “a true artist” (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e) with \u003ci\u003eCat’s Cradle\u003c\/i\u003e in 1963. He was, as Graham Greene declared, “one of the best living American writers.” Vonnegut died April 11, 2007.","brand":"Melville House","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46303182717157,"sku":"NP9781612190907","price":15.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781612190907.jpg?v=1767730868","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/kurt-vonnegut-the-last-interview-isbn-9781612190907","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}