Love As Always, Kurt: Vonnegut As I Knew Him, by Loree Rackstraw

Bufkinite@evpl — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 06:21:00 GMT

In September of 1965 Lorree Rackstraw was a graduate student in her second year at the Iowa Writer's Workshop, apprehensive about her new teacher, a relatively unknown writer named Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut had published just three books: The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, and Cat's Cradle. He'd also finished writing God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater the previous spring, and was struggling to get onto paper what he referred to as his "Dresden Book."

Love As Always, Kurt, recounts the friendship that began that summer, and lasted over 40 years, until Kurt Vonnegut died in April of 2007. To call it a friendship cheapens the care that this memoir makes clear they shared with one another. Rackstraw is now Professor Emeritus and the University of Northern Iowa & former editor of The North American Review.

This memoir of Rackstraw's forty-year relationship with Kurt Vonnegut is a very personal and deep look into both the human and the writer behind the name Kurt Vonnegut. We see clearly how, as a writer, he labors in draft after draft of everything he wrote from Slaughterhouse Five to Man Without a Country, and down to the speeches he gave at countless colleges, universities, graduations, and memorial services. We see, just as clearly, how he champions common humanity, and simultaneously enjoys the company of the famous and relatively well-to-do. We see how, despite periods of darkness and cynicism, this relationship buoyed Vonnegut, and provided Rackstraw with an escape from the pressures of her academic career as well.

We see, most plainly, a deep and abiding friendship that transcends all normal definitions. Was it love? Definitely. What it friendship? In the most useful meaning of the word, yes. But it was more: it was a collegial relationship - Vonnegut sent her page proofs of everything from Slaughterhouse Five forward; it was an intimate relationship, certainly: "Kurt and I toured the town of Key West, hand in hand like kids, and took photographs of each other beside somebody else's catch of a huge fish... Later, we danced barefoot under moonlight on that beach, to ragtime music from the piano bar;" and ultimately, it was a lifelong relationship, that saw a parting of the ways only in the death of one.

Being a long-time Vonnegut fan, I loved this book. It represents a first-hand account of four decades of his life by someone who he consistently loved, and who loved him in return. A tender portrait.

"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer

Guatemama@evpl — Wed, 27 Aug 2008 15:24:00 GMT

In looking for the next "good" book to read I happened upon a review of this title and was quickly drawn in by... well, just about everything. It centers around an unlikely book group. It makes mention of and draws parallels with some great authors and their literary works - the Bronte sisters to name a few. With a setting in London and the Channel Islands just after the German Occupation of World War II, this novel appealed to my love of historical fiction. And it is a debut novel... something I am always fascinated to find and explore!

As I began to read, I was put off just a little by the book's format, a series of letters written between the people of Guernsey and a young author in London, but quickly found this quite charming. (Not to mention this succinct style worked well for me -- a mother of two young children!) I was quickly and thouroughly drawn into the correspondence between this varied group of people. And though I thought I knew what I was getting into with this book, I found it to be anything but predictable. I was hooked from the first page to the last and even with a joyously happy ending I was left wanting to know more. And hoping to read more from Mary Ann Shaffer and her aunt/co-author Annie Barrows in the future!

Find The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society at EVPL

More reviews of this book

Books Blog : reviews, World War II

Love As Always, Kurt: Vonnegut As I Knew Him, by Loree Rackstraw

"The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society" by Mary Ann Shaffer