I just finished Cat’s Cradle. It confirmed my suspicion that Kurt Vonnegut is my favorite author. Absolutely brilliant - incredibly bleak yet shockingly beautiful. Vonnegut has the uncanny ability to craft novels that contain short, but incredibly profound passages, that echo to the core of human existence. He then nestles them deep in between sardonic prose - its like a treasure hunt, but for the cynic idealist. You agree with everything he is saying about how dreadfully hopeless the world is, yet as you ask yourself  what the fucking point is, he reminds you why it is all worth it.

The “War in Reverse” passage from SlaughterHouse-Five is exactly what I’m talking about. Beautiful.