Dan Wakefield is a novelist, journalist, and screenwriter. Born in
Indianapolis, Indiana, he was an Eagle Scout and began his writing
career as a columnist of his high school newspaper, The Shortridge
Daily Echo. Shortridge High was also the school Kurt Vonnegut had
graduated from a few years earlier. They didn't know each other at
the time, but eventually they met and became lifelong friends.
Dan has served as a sports correspondent and writer for a number of
magazines and newspapers including Harpers, Atlantic Monthly, and
The New York Times Magazine. His best-selling novels Going All The
Way and Starting Over were made into feature films, and a
documentary film was produced of his memoir New York in the
Fifties. He splits his time between Indianapolis IN and Miami FL.
"It’s not only young adults who will get a kick out of the book.
You will, too . . . You get the idea that Mr. Wakefield’s account
of Vonnegut’s life is funny and tender, the kind of book that will
leave you bruised and happy and reverberating a little, as if you
are a piano that someone has just finished playing. . . .What
really strikes you, though, is that the reviewer is addressing you
directly, using the second person, in the present
tense. ... it works like a dream. The style Mr.
Wakefield uses has the effect of turning Vonnegut (1922-2007) into
your intimate friend."
—Meghan Cox Gurdon, Wall Street Journal
"Dan Wakefield has delivered Kurt Vonnegut to a new generation of
readers. During the Vietnam war years Vonnegut was regarded
as a truth-teller by young students who gulped down his novels. As
Wakefield puts it, 'He said things that other people thought but
didn’t’ say or hadn’t dared to think but recognized as true when
they heard them.' This book is especially important to anyone
who aspires to be a writer. Vonnegut was more than merely gifted:
he was dogged. In 1992, when he was 70, Vonnegut said, 'It has
always been the case with me that when my life is a mess I can find
some relief by writing.' Vonnegut’s good friend Dan Wakefield knew
him as did few others; and he has done us all a favor with this
detailed biography of this fearless writer."
—Phillip Hoose, winner of the National Book Award for Young
People's Literature
"Novelist, screenwriter and fellow Indiana native Dan Wakefield
draws on letters, essays, speeches, novels and his long friendship
with Kurt Vonnegut for this excellent biography, the first Vonnegut
biography written for teens.. . . Wakefield's unusual use of
the second-person gives the book a startling immediacy and
intimacy. . . . A complete portrait of Vonnegut as artist,
practical joker, brother, father, uncle, friend, mentor and
humanist emerges."
—Jean Westmoore, The Buffalo News
"A penetrating view of the life, work, and character of a renowned
writer, artist, playwright, and countercultural icon.
"Wakefield, editor of Vonnegut’s collected
letters and short stories as well as a personal friend of the late
author, incorporates dozens of the former as well as extracts from
speeches and personal memories into a present-tense, second-person
encomium that slides smoothly over some rougher spots—notably
fractured relationships with certain publishers and agents as well
as both of his wives. But readers who are still, after so many
years, encountering Vonnegut’s edgy, profane, often hilarious
writing in high school or later will find links aplenty between his
early experiences and later works and themes alongside ample
documentation of his devastating and even now timely attacks on
warmongers and, as the author of several perennially challenged
books, self-appointed censors. The epistolary passages make up for
a relative paucity of direct quotes from the books in providing a
sense of his voice, and the notes for an undelivered talk that
close the main narrative (the editor adds on substantial
reminiscences and acknowledgements) do capture his characteristic
sensibility and wit: 'And how should we behave during this
Apocalypse? We should be unusually kind to one another, certainly.
But we should also stop being so serious. Jokes help a lot. And get
a dog, if you don’t already have one….I’m out of here.'
"Sympathetic, authoritative, and readable."
(photo credits, index) (Biography. 13-18)
—Kirkus Reviews
"I love the tone the second person gives the story. There's
something intimate and warm about it. It says I see you and I
understand you. The thing that students love about Vonnegut is the
humor but also the moral compass, the humanity and this book shows
where it comes from."
—Susan Neville, Butler University
"In this rich, engaging biography, Dan Wakefield introduces readers
to the key mentors, artistic influences, family members, and
experiences that shaped Kurt Vonnegut’s distinctive voice and
extraordinary career as a writer. Vonnegut fans young and old
alike will be enchanted by Wakefield’s intimate and always
insightful portrait of the beloved Hoosier icon."
—Christina Jarvis, author of Lucky Mud & Other Foma: A Field Guide
to Kurt Vonnegut’s Planetary Citizenship
"Wakefield, a lifelong friend of Vonnegut, here pens an unusual
biography for young adults. The time line of this biography is
typical: it follows Vonnegut’s life through childhood, high school,
college, military service, young family and working life, to
finally getting published and becoming a literary sensation. In
high school, he identified as a bit of a nerd, but was voted one of
the most popular boys in school along with the star athletes, much
to his surprise! His parents were of means, particularly his
mother. They lost most of their money in the stock market crash of
1929. Ultimately, his mother couldn’t adjust to a simpler lifestyle
and died by suicide when Vonnegut was 21. He raised seven children
while struggling to make a living getting published. After he and
his wife had three children, they adopted his sister’s four
orphaned sons after their parents died suddenly. Much of his early
life makes for compelling reading. However, the narrative style of
the biography is rather unconventional, using the second-person
mixed with personal letters. Reading Vonnegut’s life from his own
point of view feels very intimate and will keep readers engaged.
While Wakefield discusses Vonnegut’s values and influences and how
well received his novels were once he got published, the biography
falls short in educating readers about the remarkable stories that
made him an icon, perhaps missing an opportunity to inspire readers
to seek them out. VERDICT A curious and appealing
biography that is recommended where literary classics are
popular."–Karen T. Bilton
—School Library Journal
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