“‘What should young people do with their lives today?’ The most daring thing is to create stable communities.” – Kurt Vonnegut, Palm Sunday (1981)
Considering that Kurt Vonnegut’s bold satire of religion started prior to the cultural rebellions of the late ’60s, and that he couched this mockery within novels that also challenged the norms and expectations of structure and narrative style, it’s remarkable that this maverick author was ever published at all, never mind becoming one of his nation’s most enduringly popular fiction writers. Yet despite his current secure place in the pantheon of American greats, that was not always the case.