A Man Without a Country

Praise

“During the darkest years of the Bush administration, these essays … were guide and serum to anyone with a feeling that pretty much everyone had lost their minds.” —Dave Eggers

“[L]ike his literary ancestor Mark Twain, his crankiness is good-humored and sharp-witted, and aimed at well-defended soft spots of hypocrisy and arrogance … On Nov. 11—the holiday Vonnegut, who was a P.O.W. in Germany in World War II, has always preferred to think of as Armistice Day—he will turn 83, and since he has no expectation of a heavenly perch from which to look down and eavesdrop on his friends, it is best that we appreciate him while he’s still around. A Man Without a Country‘ is a fine place to start, especially since it can lead us back to Mother Night and Slaughterhouse-Five and The Sirens of Titan and the stories collected in Bagombo Snuff Box. In other words, it’s like sitting down on the couch for a long chat with an old friend.” —The New York Times Book Review

“Although A Man Without a Country has its roots in … essays and public statements, it is, at heart, a different type of project, fuller, more integrated, not a collection of loose ends so much as a testament … Certainly, A Man Without a Country is as overtly political a book as Vonnegut has written, a lament for an America that is no longer, in which, the author argues, social justice has been subsumed by war and fear. At the same time, it may be as close as Vonnegut ever comes to a memoir, with its mix of autobiography and social commentary, its reflections on topics as varied as our fossil fuel addiction and longtime heroes like Twain and labor and political leader Eugene V. Debs.” —Los Angeles Times