While Mortals Sleep

September 27, 2010
The 16 previously unpublished short stories of this collection, taken from the beginning of Vonnegut's career, show a young author already grappling with themes and ideas that would define his work for decades to come. "Girl Pool" features typist Amy Lou Little, employee of the Kafkaesque Montezuma Forge and Foundry Company, who is tasked with transcribing a plea for help she receives on her Dictaphone from an escaped, dying murderer hiding somewhere in the works of the company's cavernous factory. The tale reveals Vonnegut investigating one of his recurring themes: the isolation brought by technology and the necessity for basic humanity in the workplace. The title story melds a sentimental meditation on the true meaning of Christmas with elements of the mystery genre as a hard-nosed reporter stalks the story of stolen nativity scene characters. While these early stories show an author still testing the boundaries of his craft and obsessions, Vonnegut's acute moral sense and knack for compelling prose are very much on display. In the foreword, Dave Eggers calls Vonnegut "a hippie Mark Twain," which perfectly captures an essential truth about this esteemed author.

November 15, 2010

"Uncollected" rather than "unpublished," these are actually early stories that appeared in magazines such as Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post. They reveal a more conventional, commercial side of Vonnegut, though we see glimmers of the work that was to come. "Jenny" concerns a lonely researcher-turned-traveling salesman who converts a refrigerator into a walking, talking robot with his ex-wife's face. The title piece is a Christmas story about an ex-con, now wealthy investor whose garish outdoor display wins a local contest--and reveals the deeper meanings of the holiday after the central figures of the creche are stolen. "Money Talks" is a charming tale of a nurse left a fortune by an elderly man she cared for and a struggling Cape Cod store owner and how the burden (or in this case, the voice) of the money almost thwarts their mutual desires. VERDICT Though not adding significantly to Vonnegut's legacy, this is an appealing glimpse of a young writer learning his craft. It deserves an audience among general readers as well as Vonnegut completists.--Lawrence Rungren, Merrimack Valley Lib. Consortium, North Andover, MA

Copyright 2010 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

November 1, 2010
Early in his career, before he fused his satirical wit and world-weary intellect in the distinctive, quasi-sf style of Cats Cradle (1963) and Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Vonnegut wrote short stories for mainstream publications, such as Colliers and The Saturday Evening Post. The 16 unpublished stories in this collection were either not submitted or not accepted, although it is easy to imagine them appearing in those contexts. Tightly and crisply written, they concern cynical newspapermen and the spirit of Christmas (While Mortals Sleep), practical jokes taken too far (Bomar), the self-sacrifice of a pregnant widow (Ruth)he had lived through the firebombing of Dresden but had not yet explored it in fiction. There are foreshadowings of Vonnegut the cynical sage, however, in With His Hand on the Throttle, when a woman dive-bombs her grown sons overgrown train layout; in Tango, when libidinous dancing disrupts a WASP-y enclave; and in Girl Pool, in which alienation arrives via the Dictaphone. As in Look at the Birdie (2009), these stories, while clearly seminal, constitute a worthwhile contribution to the authors oeuvre. HIGH-DEMAND BACKSTORY: The legendary authors death in 2007 means an eventual end to unpublished writings, and Vonnegut fans have read all their old paperbacks to tatters.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2010, American Library Association.)