Happy Birthday, Wanda June

Pocketbok

Publicerades 15 augusti 1971 av Delta.

ISBN:
978-0-440-50484-9
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HAROLD: Whoever has the gun, you see, gets to tell everyone else what to do. It's the American way.

In the comments to Slaughterhouse-Five, Vonnegut writes about how he came back from the war, from POW camp, from watching Dresden burn to the ground, and was told by a relative "now that you've killed, you're a man." He wasn't pleased. Happy Birthday, Wanda June comes partly from that.

As chance would have it, I just rewatched Scenes From a Marraige, and the parallels are curious. Two middle-aged men trying to figure out the new masculinity post-2nd wave feminism and hoping that the future won't be as disgustingly macho. It's not a comparison that does Vonnegut any favours, and I suppose there's a reason he didn't go into plays full-time. That said, as Odyssey rewrites go, it's got a certain small-scale charm as it tackles machismo and hope in …