Before winning international fame with Cat's Cradle and
Slaughterhouse-Five, Kurt Vonnegut was a master of the drugstore
paperback and the popular short story. This authoritative collection of
his brilliant early work opens with Player Piano (1952), a
Metropolis-like parable of breakneck technological innovation and its
effect on those it robs of their livelihoods. The Sirens of Titan
(1959), the interplanetary adventures of the world's wealthiest and most
despised man, is both a pulp-fiction space opera and a satire on the
vanity of human striving. The confessions of a German-American double
agent well placed among the Nazi elite, Mother Night (1962) is a
cautionary tale with a famous moral: "We are what we pretend to be, so
we must be careful about what we pretend to be." Here too are six of
Vonnegut's best short stories, gems that display his matchless talent
for hilarious invention and caustic social criticism.
A companion volume, Kurt Vonnegut: Novels & Stories 1963-1973,
collects Cat's Cradle; God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater;
Slaughterhouse-Five; Breakfast of Champions; and three short
stories, including "Welcome to the Monkey House."
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