Product Description

In what began as a series of quirkily characteristic ninety-second interludes for New York's public radio station, Kurt Vonnegut asks, on behalf of us all, the Big Questions. Could death be a quality? A place? Not an ending but an occurrence that changes those to whom it happens?

As a "reporter on the afterlife," Vonnegut bravely allows himself to be strapped to a gurney by his friend Jack Kevorkian and dispatched round-trip to the Pearly Gates. Or at least that's what he claims in the introduction to these thirty-odd comic and irreverent "interviews" with the likes of William Shakespeare, Adolf Hitler, and Clarence Darrow, bringing readers to an entirely new place -- a place to which only Vonnegut could bring us.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #277971 in Books
• Published on: 2001-05-22
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 80 pages

From Publishers Weekly
As a "reporter on the afterlife," Kurt Vonnegut bravely allows himself to be strapped to a gurney by his friend Jack Kevorkian and dispatched--round-trip--to the Pearly Gates. Or at least that's what he claims in the introduction to this series of brief pieces originally read as 90-second interludes on WNYC, Manhattan's public radio station. Revised and rewritten for this slim volume, Vonnegut's "interviews" range from the gossamer-slight to the deliciously barbed. Among the dead people he is privileged to talk to are Salvatore Biagini, a retired construction worker who died of a heart attack while rescuing his schnauzer from a pit bull; John Brown, still smoldering 140 years after his death by hanging; William Shakespeare, who spouts quotations and rubs Vonnegut the wrong way; and one of Vonnegut's own personal heroes, socialist and labor leader Eugene Victor Debs. The tables are turned on Vonnegut when he runs into Sir Isaac Newton, who is lurking near the Heaven end of the "blue tunnel" of the Afterlife. Newton, tireless in his quest for knowledge, wants to find out what the tunnel is made of, and he takes over the interview, besieging Vonnegut with questions. Unfazed, the writer moves on, looking up Martin Luther King's assassin, James Earl Ray, and Mary Wollstonecraft Shelley. It is only when Dr. Kevorkian is inconveniently convicted for murder that Vonnegut is forced to desist. This may be Vonnegut (or his publishers) scraping the bottom of the barrel, but no matter: there are few writers whose scrapings we'd rather have. (Jan.)
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
John Irving Vonnegut is our strongest writer...the most stubbornly imaginative. -- Review

Review
TimeVonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari, and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer...A zany but moral-mad scientist.

The Providence Sunday JournalVonnegut devotees will love this little book, and I'm sure anyone else with a sense of humor and the desire to fulfill his or her "right to know" will enjoy it as well...A tidy smorgasbord of ficto-journalism and journo-fictionalism and various other forms of writing that deftly defy classification.

John IrvingVonnegut is our strongest writer...the most stubbornly imaginative.

Customer Reviews

Not quite Vonnegut at his prime, but still worth the read.
For those of you who are Vonnegut fanatics, this is a book that you must have, but on the same token you may be slightly disappointed. An interesting and funny plot, placing Kurt Vonnegut in the hands of Dr. Kevorkian, but that may be one of the few humorous antics of the book.

Vonnegut's visits with the other side are short, often leaving the reader wanting to know just a little bit more. He uses an interesting approach, interviewing a wide variety of people...from famous thinkers to the typical Joe, reminding us that we much too often overlook the significance of every life.

Vonnegut's liberal-self shines through when he jokes around about the death penalty and the Texas facility that him and Jack must evacuate several times so that it may be put to "full" use. And for history buffs, his interview with Eugene V. Debs will keep you laughing. :)

This work is a short and fast read, which will start the reader off laughing. (The introduction is typical Vonnegut satire.) Not to be compared (by any means) to his major works such as Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five, or Mother Night, but nonetheless worth the read.

Short, but Meaningful
You know why I'm giving this book a '4'? Because it's not a masterpiece, but it IS unique and it stuck with me more than any book I've read in the past couple of years. Yes it's short book, but I have come to realize that not all great stories need to be long, drawn-out novels filled with plot twists and dozens of interesting characters. Vonnegut gets quickly to the point here. He usually does. I think that's one of his greatest strengths as an author. And what a great concept! It is collection of interviews with people who have passed away. As the story goes, Vonnegut has worked a deal with Jack Kevorkian whereby he is able to go to the pearly gates, interview someone, and then come back before it's too late. The resulting interviews with both famous and non-famous people are interesting, funny, sad, and, most of all, thought provoking. So if you want a quick read that gives you all of those emotions, get it.

Vintage Vonnegut
Old Kurt has done it again...Further pushing back the walls of reality to make room for his outlandish yet all too believable fiction. In "God Bless You, Dr Kevorkian" Vonnegut presents written transcripts from the post-mortem interviews he's conducted with dead celebrities(both well known and obscure) through controlled near death experiences courtesy of Dr. Jack Kevorkian. It is through these fictional interviews that Vonnegut gives his take on life, death, and the human experience and ends up at his familiar refrain: Life may be meaningless--but at least it's beautiful. This is vintage Vonnegut--A gospel of the laughable irony of human existence. This book was a joy to read.