Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time (2021)

I definitely have mixed feelings about Kurt Vonnegut. On one hand he was incredibly influential to me in my formative years. I was probably too young to properly appreciate Slaughterhouse-Five when I first read the book, but I liked it. I went on to read every book that came before it. I liked them all. In fact, I may have called Kurt my favorite writer at one point.

Slaughterhouse-Five was something new in literature. It surely wasn't the first meta novel. Philip Wylie, at the very least, used himself as a character in his works of fiction. Slaughterhouse-Five was unique in that it was a bizarre hybrid of memoir, war history, social criticism, and science fiction. He went deeper into his own metaverse with the following book, Breakfast of Champions.

Champions was a huge, monstrous bestseller. And it was certainly a heady novel for a middle school brat like me. At that point Vonnegut was a certified cult writer and a pillar of the literary world.

Then something happened. It took a while for the followup novel. Slapstick came a long thirteen years later. Sadly, it was a disappointment to almost everyone. Probably even to its author. The next book, Jailbird, was a little better. Then came an "autobiographical collage" called Palm Sunday. I unwisely paid for a hardcover and I hated it.

Kurt's star started to seriously lose its luster by the late eighties. I remember enjoying Galapagos, at least to a point. I tried to read his final novel, Timequake, and I am unhappy to say I thought it was a colossal mess.

By the early two-thousands Vonnegut seemed to focus on criticism of the Bush administration. Great, just what the world needed. Yet another author of fiction lecturing about politics. In the past he seemed to be above such things.

Around 2010 I tried to reread one of Vonnegut's best novels, Cat's Cradle. I'm afraid his style no longer worked for me. I loved it as a teen. The book rubbed me completely wrong when I was around fifty years old.

The problem is almost certainly me. I give credit for the impact Kurt Vonnegut had on me, but I don't look back at the work with the same affection I do to Jack Williamson, Alfred Bester, Frederik Pohl, or any of the SF writers I loved at the time. I certainly don't feel the same as I do toward Charles L. Grant, Ramsey Campbell, or Stephen King, and the rewarding reading experiences I had with these writers of horror.

I decided a while back to turn the page on Kurt Vonnegut and his writing. So it goes.

Now there is a documentary called Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time. It was a huge project by Robert Weide, with a very large gestation. I had seen Wiede's documentary on Woody Allen. Regardless of how you feel about the subject, Woody Allen: A Documentary is brilliantly done.

The difference is, Weide and Vonnegut were close friends for forty years. They loved one another, and Weide had countless hours of video footage, as well as personal recollections, to bring Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time to life.

Vonnegut was a complicated individual. He was an odd mix of wide-eyed innocence and world-weary cynicism. He spoke simply and his stories were told in simple, easy-to-digest style. He could be lovable and he could be an unpleasant bastard. He was like the rest of us in that way.

Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time is a fascinating, deeply emotional plunge into the world of Kurt and his families. It's an entertaining, enlightening look at a foremost American author.

And yet I found it a bit off-putting. Weide had hundreds of hours of video footage to work with, but the scenes he used lack either humor or genuine insight. His public speaking seemed forced and he generally appeared to be uncomfortable. Kurt seemed much more at ease in the many sequences of home video sprinkled throughout the documentary.

When I was done I thought I should go back and try his fiction again, and to start with the one I got onboard the Vonnegut express: Slaughterhouse-Five. Upon reflection I decided to skip it. Rather than to sully my memories of his work any further, I believe I will be more amply rewarded by going back to reread Straub, Barker, Tessier, Farris, or even John Irving.

I do not regret watching Kurt Vonnegut: Unstuck in Time, and I strongly recommend it to anyone interested in literature. It should be as entertaining to those who, like me, know his work, as it will to those who have not read him.

Written by Mark Sieber