{"product_id":"unstuck-in-time-isbn-9781609804305","title":"Unstuck in Time","description":"In \u003ci\u003eUnstuck in Time\u003c\/i\u003e, Gregory Sumner guides us, with insight and passion, through a biography of fifteen of Kurt Vonnegut's best-known works--his fourteen novels starting with \u003ci\u003ePlayer Piano \u003c\/i\u003e(1952) all the way to an epilogue on his last book, \u003ci\u003eA Man Without a Country \u003c\/i\u003e(2005)--to illustrate the quintessential American writer's profound engagement with the \"American Dream\" in its various forms.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eSumner gives us a poignant portrait of Vonnegut and his resistance to celebrating the traditional values associated with the American Dream: grandiose ambition, unbridled material success, rugged individualism, and \"winners\" over \"losers.\" Instead of a celebration of these values, we read and share Vonnegut's outrage, his brokenhearted empathy for those who struggle under the ethos of survival-of-the-fittest in the frontier mentality--something he once memorably described as \"an impossibly tough-minded experiment in loneliness.\"\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003eHeroic and tragic, Vonnegut's novels reflect the pain of his own life's experiences, relieved by small acts of kindness, friendship, and love that exemplify another way of living, another sort of human utopia, an alternative American Dream, and the reason we always return to his books.\"Like  so many of America’s great vernacular spokespersons—Abraham Lincoln,  Will Rogers, Frank Lloyd Wright—Kurth Vonnegut knew that he’d be most  convincing when telling his own story with simple, plain honesty.  Gregory D. Sumner has perceived that directness in Vonnegut’s novels,  and correlates the author’s life and works in an engaging, almost  spellbinding manner. The Grand Old Man would have liked this book, and I  can sense his blessing on it.\" \u003cb\u003e—Professor Jerome Klinkowitz, author of \u003ci\u003eVonnegut in Fact\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Vonnegut Effect\u003c\/i\u003e, and \u003ci\u003eKurt Vonnegut’s America\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Gregory  D. Sumner celebrates what he playfully identifies as the ‘Kurt Vonnegut  road show’ with a tribute that is enlightening and entertaining. I read  with wonder and delight the biographical sketches so gracefully fused  with a montage of Vonnegut stories and the ideas they dramatize. Unstuck in Time is an achievement of scholarship illuminated by a fan’s contagious enthusiasm.\"\u003cb\u003e—Sidney Offit, Curator-emeritus George Polk Journalism Awards\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"Gregory D. Sumner's \u003ci\u003eUnstuck in Time\u003c\/i\u003e is a wonderful primer to Kurt Vonnegut's work. Every page brims with  analytic insight, biographical revelation, and old-fashioned  storytelling. Reading Sumner reminds us about how astoundingly right  Vonnegut was about the planetary\u003cbr\u003econdition. Highly recommended!\" \u003cb\u003e—Douglas Brinkley, professor of history at Rice University \u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e \"\u003ci\u003eUnstuck in Time\u003c\/i\u003e is a fine, appreciative account of the life and work of a great American writer, Kurt Vonnegut.\" \u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003e—Dan Wakefield, author of \u003c\/b\u003e\u003ci\u003e\u003cb\u003eNew York in the Fifties\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\"An excellent reading companion to Kurt’s work.\" \u003cb\u003e—Mark Vonnegut\u003c\/b\u003eGREGORY D. SUMNER, JD, PhD, is chair of history at the University of Detroit Mercy, where he has taught since 1993. He holds a doctorate in American history from Indiana University and is the author of \u003ci\u003eDwight Macdonald and the Politics\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eCircle\u003c\/i\u003e. Sumner has been awarded summer fellowships by the National Endowment for the Humanities, and has twice been William J. Fulbright Senior Lecturer at the Université di Roma Tre.","brand":"Seven Stories Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46299862663397,"sku":"NP9781609804305","price":18.95,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9781609804305.jpg?v=1767743297","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/unstuck-in-time-isbn-9781609804305","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}