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[beachlass]

Kurt Vonnegut is dead. I started reading Vonnegut when I was in high school, many moons ago. I read and re-read Vonnegut until my early-20's... probably Bluebeard was the last book of his I read. Growing up in small town Ontario, Vonnegut was so removed and yet so very true, with his odd characters and even odder stories. I expect that Vonnegut shaped my taste in literature, sharpened my appreciation for highlighting the absurd, and then adding on seventeen more layers of craziness, all with a deft and defiant touch for language and a piercing insightfulness and compassion. Well done sir, thanks for the words.

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[beachlass.livejournal.com]

There's a beatiful sketch on his website of an open birdcage. I don't think I was as wedded to Vonnegut as some others - it was Timothy Findley that I read and reread until the books feel apart. I was standing in the bookstore on Saturday, holding a hardcover copy of The Telling of Lies, thinking I should buy this, my paperback has no cover, and is going to fall apart. But it just felt wrong - wasn't my copy of the book, so I left it on the shelf. (I did, however, put a copy of Alias Grace in D's easter basket).