10 Best Books by Kurt Vonnegut to Read Next

If you like reading dystopian books or novels that are not afraid to be countercultural, Kurt Vonnegut should be high on your list. Best known for Slaughterhouse-Five, he’s a key part of the postmodernist literary movement. 

Throughout his more than 50 year-career as a writer, he made bold and honest attempts to confront the injustices of the 20th century. By the time he died in 2007, he had published fourteen novels, five plays, five nonfiction books, and three short story collections, mostly in the satire, science fiction, and gallows humor genres. 

10 Kurt Vonnegut Books to Add to Your List 

If you haven’t read any of Kurt Vonnegut’s works before, here are some of the best ones to start with to get a taste of his unique writing style. Or, if you’ve already a fan, check out this list to see if there’s anything else you may have missed: 

1. Slaughterhouse-Five 

Considered an American classic, this book is a good choice as your first foray into Vonnegut’s work. Using his experience as a prisoner of war during World War II, he tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, who became a draftee, an optometrist, and finally, was abducted by aliens in this historical fiction, satire, and science fiction work all rolled into one. 

2. Player Piano

Vonnegut’s first novel features Paul Proteus, an engineer who struggles to survive in a world run wholly by machines and dominated by a supercomputer. The author’s dark humor and penchant for satire oozes right out of this book, challenging you to think deep about man’s dependence on machines. 

3. The Sirens of Titan

Esquire calls this Vonnegut’s best book, as he asks the fundamental question of the meaning of life, and also sets out to answer it. Malachi Constant is the richest man on earth, who is offered the chance of adventures to distant worlds. What could the condition be? 

4. Mother Night

This book features Howard Campbell, Jr., an American who was a spy during the Second World War, and who is now under trial as a war criminal on the side of Nazi Germany. Vonnegut explores the issue by effectively turning something that could be black-and-white into a haunting shade of gray. 

5. Cat’s Cradle

This apocalyptic story is a satirical commentary on the madness of modern man. A midget plays the main role, while a calypso singer creates a whole new theology amid a picture of the future that is fatalistic, while managing to be surprisingly funny.

6. Hocus Pocus 

The main character is a Vietnam veteran named Eugene Debs Hartke, who is also a college professor and jazz pianist who foretells apocalyptic events. The Atlanta Journal & Constitution hails this book for reestablishing Vonnegut as “the Mark Twain of our times.” 

7. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater 

Elliot Rosewater, the president of the Rosewater Foundation, is also a volunteer fireman and a drunkard. He conducts an experiment on human nature, giving us a hilarious satire on the themes of hypocrisy, greed, and the struggles of the human experience. 

8. Breakfast of Champions 

Kilgore Trout is a fiction writer who discovers, to his dismay, that a car dealer in the Midwest is taking his works as truth. Through this funny satire, Vonnegut explores the topics of racism, politics, success, and sex, in an attempt to help us remember how to find the truth. 

9. Bluebeard

Rabo Karabekian is the fictional autobiographical character in this book. He’s a 71-year-old who wants to be left by himself on an estate on Long Island, keeping a secret to himself. But a young widow steps into his life and wheedles him into telling her his life story. 

10. A Man Without a Country 

This is a collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s essays, dealing with topics such as the value of humor, gender differences, issues with modern technology, politics, and just about any issue in modern American society. Most of these essays are written from a humanistic point of view, and, as his final work, give us a closer look at the heart of this beloved author. 

Reading Books by Kurt Vonnegut 

If you want an honest look at the problems of modern society in an entertaining satire, you shouldn’t miss reading books by Kurt Vonnegut. At first, his style may take a little getting used to, but the more you read him, the more you will appreciate his unique humor. You can also sample snippets of his style with these Kurt Vonnegut quotes.

If you’ve never tried reading any of his books, check out some of the ones on this list. Or if you’d like to read other authors, we have other book lists to help you out. 

Did you find this post helpful? Let us know in the comments below!

 

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