Armageddon in Retrospect-Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Armageddon in Retrospect
Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
Putnam, Apr 2008, $24.95
ISBN: 9780399155086

This is a terrific collection by one of the great commentators on human condition in the since WW II. As always Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. uses wry humor to rip into those warmongers who always send someone else to die. The anthology contains nonfiction like the letter he sent to his dad in Indianapolis in which the GI Grunt explains he is fortunate to escape the firebombing of Dresden in 1945 and “Wailing Shall be In All the Streets” where he discuses his POW job of burying the dead in Dresden. The short story fictions are also haunting as the title story advocates that good can never win over evil because good needs evil to exist just like the world can never be at peace for that “Great Day" would lead to war; the author makes the case that violence is in the human DNA even the very young look to fight. This anthology is a fitting final tribute by the late great author who throughout displays his droll sense of the paradox that makes up the “Guns and Butter” of life and death on planet earth.

Harriet Klausner