Described as "a word cartoonist, a wise guy, a true subversive," by Valerie Sayers in the New York Times, Kurt Vonnegut is lauded as one of America's most respected novelists, "recognized as a thoughtful social critic who ponders the impact of technology, science, and social behavior," according to Peter J. Reed in the Dictionary of Literary Biography. Something of a grandfather of American letters and often compared to satirists such as Mark Twain and Jonathan Swift, Vonnegut was an inspiration to the generation of Americans that came of age after World War II; his laconic "So it goes" is a generational catch-phrase every bit as resonant as Joseph Heller's "Catch-22"; his character Kilgore Trout, whose bumbling misadventures Vonnegut follows through many of his books, has become an Everyman of postmodern antiheroes. "Through his usually damaged, faltering antiheroes his stories search for what gives life meaning in a society...