New in paperback
Understanding Kurt Vonnegut
William Rodney Allen
“As both literary critic and academic, Allen cuts through the clarity and the humor, the
deceptively simple and the downright silly, to offer a careful . . . analysis of Vonnegut
the serious artist.”—Small Press
“Allen centers on the author’s most experimental period, reading Mother Night as a
tautly structured and tightly focused narrative confession, Cat’s Cradle as an exuberant test of such limits, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater as a significant shift to realism, and
Slaughterhouse-Five as a masterful transposition of time and space. Among the later
works, Allen prefers Jailbird and Bluebeard for their apt renderings of important cultural, social, and political issues.”—American Literary Scholarship
“Understanding Kurt Vonnegut is a welcome addition to the growing body of critical
work on Vonnegut.”—Utopian Studies
Understanding Kurt Vonnegut is a critical analysis of Vonnegut’s fiction as a point of
entrance for students and general readers alike. In close readings of Vonnegut’s novels,
William Rodney Allen examines the distinctive stylistic, thematic, and formally innovative elements that earned Vonnegut (1922–2007) a mass following, especially among
young readers, as well as critical respect among scholars.
Understanding Contemporary American Literature • Matthew J. Bruccoli, series editor
William Rodney Allen teaches English
at the Louisiana School for Math, Science, and the Arts in Natchitoches. His
other books include Walker Percy: A
Southern Wayfarer, Conversations with
Kurt Vonnegut, and The Coen Brothers:
Interviews.
August 2009, 208 pages
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