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Hero/loser

20.05.12

, Shields’ semi-authorized account of Vonnegut’s rise from obscurity, will disappoint his dwindling number of adoring (and aging) fans. During his heyday — the Vietnam-Watergate era —millions of Americans, especially young Americans, lapped up his undemanding satires; the books’ irreverence and cynicism reflected the zeitgeist. And yet, despite his quasi-rock star status, Vonnegut hardly lifted a finger to advance the goals of the counterculture. His first wife Jane, a hard-working activist, later said, “Strangely, there was very little communication between the spokesman of the generation and that particular movement.”

Hippies and other misfits yearned to sit lotus-style around this sage, soaking up his wisdom. But people who knew Vonnegut well would have advised them to observe the inorganic nature of his feet. Their clayness derived from the marked difference between his private life and his public persona. His family had to endure his infidelity, self-absorption and emotional abuse. Two editors, without whose loyalty and dedication Vonnegut would have remained a struggling loser, were ruthlessly backstabbed and discarded. And then there was the leftist hero’s stock portfolio, which included considerable investments in the military industrial complex and antiunion, eco-hostile corporations.

Source: MiamiHerald.com