If This Isn't Nice, What Is?: Advice for the Young
Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Master storyteller and satirist Kurt Vonnegut was one of the most in-demand commencement speakers of his time. For each occasion, Vonnegut's words were unfailingly unique, insightful, and witty, and they stayed with audience members long after graduation. This expanded second edition includes more than sixty pages of further thoughts from Kurt (whose good advice wasn’t limited to graduation speeches). As edited by Dan Wakefield, this book reads like a narrative in the unique voice that made Vonnegut a hero to readers of all ages. At times hilarious, razor-sharp, freewheeling, and deeply serious, these reflections are ideal for anyone undergoing what Vonnegut would call their “long-delayed puberty ceremony”—marking the passage from student to full-time adult.
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This is really more of 3.5 stars! I love the contents of this book because I love Vonnegut’s writing - it is simple, but always so profound. I feel a great kinship with him and reading so many of his speeches made me as if I knew him! I missed him somehow after reading them. I relate so much to a man who can see so clearly so many of the problems surrounding us, but can’t help but laugh and love life all the same.
Although I loved the contents of his speeches (particularly his comments about religion, puberty ceremonies, and remembering to notice when you’re happy), I don’t feel that this book is very cohesive as a collection. The speeches don’t really feel interconnected or linked at all - it’s very easy for them to blur together though decades of history separate them. I think the collection would’ve flowed better with information to bridge the gap - about Vonnegut’s life leading up to and between these events. He does provide some of this information in his speeches, but I think more would’ve improved the flow. I think it would’ve provided a matrix for the speeches to be nestled in, whereas now it seems as if they’re just floating detached from one another a great void.
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