Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.: Cat's Cradle (1963)

[jserraglio]

Written in the wake of the near-miss nuclear disaster of the Cuban Missile Crisis, Cat's Cradle, KV's calling card, what he termed his "flagship book", can be read today, in the wake of the COVID-19 pandemic, as a prescient, post-apocalyptic prophecy.

If I were a younger man, I would write a history of human stupidity; and I would climb to the top of Mount McCabe and lie down on my back with my history for a pillow; and I would take from the ground some of the blue-white poison that makes statues of men; and I would make a statue of myself, lying on my back, grinning horribly, and thumbing my nose at You Know Who.

Vonnegut, age 81, lectures in Severance Hall, Cleveland, 2004. My wife and I were there. The joint was packed, and KV was seriously funny that day.