so honest it hurts

What makes Vonnegut a true and marvelous master of the human condition and life and everything is his acceptance of the unexplainable. Rather than trying to give reasons and solutions, he simply lays it all out in a vastly entertaining style, and challenges his readers to make something of the mess. Here, with a cast of characters unspectacular whirling around in a lot of nothing, it's really rather amazing how deeply touching and brilliant the story is. Although this has a lot to do with Vonnegut's uncanny ability to poke your mind with subtle points in obvious fashion to, so it has to do with the factthat not everything is glamorous and suspenseful and neat. In fact, very little is. The meeting of Vonnegut and Trout at the end is absolutely classic, I could not stop grinning through the Entire Encounter, and the book itself is genius. Dare to be cynical with the master.