A Man Without a Country Chapter Summary & Analysis | Chapter 12, "I Used to be the Owner and Manager of an Automobile Dealership"

Chapter 12, "I Used to be the Owner and Manager of an Automobile Dealership" Summary

Vonnegut describes a time when he owned and ran a Saab car dealership. He believes that this has a direct correlation to the startling question of why he has never won a Nobel Prize for literature. In detail, he describes what kind of a car the Saab originally was, and how it was one of the worst cars ever made. It was small, had "suicide doors," and had an engine like a lawnmower, where both oil and gas had to be mixed every time it was filled up. If someone forgot to do that, the engine went up in flames. After a very short time, Vonnegut agreed that the Swedes made the best watches, but terrible cars. He claims that, as a result of his bashing of Swedish engineering, he destroyed any chance he actually had of winning a Nobel Prize.

The second section discusses how difficult it is to...
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