My first run-in with Kurt Vonnegut was after starting a job in high school as the library page at my local public library. It wasn't through shelving, but through a required reading list. Not mine--but one that I saw in a magazine or book. Actually, it would have been while I was in college and still working part-time at the library.
So, I took home Slaughterhouse-Five. I remember devouring it. And passing it on to my brother Andy. Over the next year we read most everything he had published. I remember hot days working as a clean-up crew with Andy for my dad's construction site. Digging ditches, sweeping, scraping and picking up trash. Discussing Vonnegut's work kept us going. I remember talking about Ice 9 while we were digging one day. And how it related to the Joe Satriani song.
So, I will go back and read some of his works again. I haven't talked to Kurt in a long time. I'm not sure which was the last book that I had read, but I think Slaughterhouse-Five will be the next one.
I have seen this quote on many blogs:
If I should ever die, God forbid, let this be my epitaph:
THE ONLY PROOF HE NEEDED
FOR THE EXISTENCE OF GOD
WAS MUSIC
--Vonnegut's Blues For America 07 January, 2006 Sunday Herald
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