Kurt Vonnegut—public clown, master of disguises, wizard of the ironic approach, self-parodist, sender-up of his self-sending-up—gives the reader of Palm Sunday plenty of warning. Writing, he says, is playing practical jokes on readers: "If you make people laugh or cry about little black marks on sheets of white paper, what is that but a practical joke? All the great story lines are great practical jokes."…
["Somebody thought" is] the sort of response Palm Sunday engagingly invites to its offered collage of bits and pieces. But the presence of irony is a great mongerer of scepticism, especially when it's signalled so loudly….
This is a free excerpt of 100 words. There are 509 words (approx.
2 pages at 300 words per page) in the full critical essay.
Read the rest of this Criticism with our Vonnegut, Kurt, Jr. 1922–: Critical Essay by Valentine Cunningham Access Pass.
