Armageddon in Retrospect - SlothJockey.com

Kurt Vonnegut. Armageddon in Retrospect. Putnam Adult, 2008. 240 pages.
ISBN-13: 978-0399155086

I suppose it is my job here to point out — in the event that it escaped your attention — the irony that a book entitled "Armageddon In Retrospect" was published posthumously. An amusement to me, this will mean something entirely different to anyone who believes there are no such things as accidents.

While every story in the collection originates from a new personality, or personalities, each one resonates with a familiar voice. We see Vonnegut as warrior, target, innocent bystander (if one believes this is possible), and sometimes all of them at once. They have different names, but they are all uniquely Vonnegut.

A prisoner at the conclusion of World War II, it becomes clear that Vonnegut's conversations with an enemy require an entirely new perspective than shooting at them. As early as the letter of May 1945 informing his parents of his whereabouts and newfound freedom; while no doubt as happy to be alive as Vonnegut ever allowed himself, I felt the first undercurrent of examination of the fee for such an endeavor.

Rummaging through a sack full of raw emotion like that, I would be tempted to proselytize, but Vonnegut resists and approaches the task with a rare honesty and detachment. There is no sermon here, nor judgment, just a refined indictment of the vagaries of war.

Recognizing long ago that I was a mass of walking contradictions, a friend and I once found ourselves lost in discussion over whether I was a cynical optimist, or an optimistic cynic. I'm pretty sure the matter was never resolved, but that's not my point. I think Vonnegut has me beat on all fronts. Unfailingly, Mr. Vonnegut, however, manages to reconcile these seeming inconsistencies and make them work.

Perhaps it's his mastery of subtlety and understatement. In his last written speech, delivered by his son, Mark Vonnegut, at Clowes Hall in Indianapolis two weeks after Kurt Vonnegut's death, he offers some sound advice to young people:

"Well, I'm sure you know that our country is the only so-called advanced nation that still has a death penalty. And torture chambers. I mean, why screw around?

But, listen: If anyone here should wind up on a gurney in a lethal-injection facility, maybe the one at Terre Haute, here is what your last words should be: 'This will certainly teach me a lesson.'"

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