As I've always been a big fan, I was excited to receive this recently published first big biography of Kurt Vonnegut for Christmas.
I learned many, many things about the author from this book, but the main thing I learned was: If you think you admire someone, maybe it's better that you don't read their biography? Or, as my mom pointed out, there's that saying . . . how does it go? "If you like sausage, it's best you don't see how it's made." Something like that.
Let me be more blunt but still put it lightly: The book made him seem like a grump and a jerk. Hard to reconcile that with the wise humanist persona of his voice in his writing.
4 comments:
"If you think you admire someone, maybe it's better that you don't read their biography?"
True of just about everyone, unfortunately. Manchester's biographies of Churchill were the exception for me.
the cover is pretty at least.....
Ryan--We should all only read biographies of Churchill and Teddy Roosevelt, these are the men we can count on.
Kelley--Yes, and the pretty book's contents taught me that you can't judge someone's life by the pretty cover, either. This book was a stack of lessons.
That was my experience reading biographies of Led Zeppelin in high school. They were dirty little pervs who happened to play rock 'n roll on the side...but I got over it.
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