I just finished reading this delightful book – A man without
a country by Kurt Vonnegut. It is by far the most delightful book I’ve read in
a long long time and like I often feel, it made me wish I’d met Vonnegut before.
But God is kind and life is long, so I shall be able to make up for lost time.
I guess.
The book is short, funny and easy to read. It’s like
Vonnegut is talking to you and about nothing in particular. He’s somebody who
likes to talk, just as he admits in the book and is refreshingly blunt. It won’t
take more than an hour to read.
These are some of my
favourite quotes from the book.
“I tell you, we are here on Earth to fart around,
and don't let anybody tell you different”
“You think Arabs are dumb? They gave us our number system.
Imagine doing long division in Roman numerals”
“If you want to really hurt your parents, and you don't have
the nerve to be gay, the least you can do is go into the arts.”
“Only nut cases want to be president. This was true even in
high school. Only clearly disturbed people ran for class president.”
“A joke is like building a mousetrap from scratch. You have
to work pretty hard to make the thing snap when it is supposed to snap.”
“Vietnam only made
billionaires out of millionaires. [Iraq] is making trillionaires out of
billionaires. Now I call that progress.”
