num_pages: 272
description: Foreword by Dave EggersSmart whimsical and often scathing the fiction of Kurt Vonnegut influenced a generation of American writersincluding Dave Eggers author of this volumes Foreword. In these previously unpublished gems Vonneguts originality infuses a unique landscape of factories trailers and barsand characters who pit their dreams and fears against a cruel and sometimes comically indifferent world.Here are stories of men and machines art and artifice and how ideals of fortune fame and love take curious twists in ordinary lives. An ambitious builder of roads commanding an army of bulldozers graders and asphalt spreaders fritters away his free time with miniature trainsuntil the women in his life crash his fantasy land. Trapped in a stenography pool a young dreamer receives a call from a robber on the run who presents her with a strange proposition. A crusty newspaperman is forced onto a committee to judge Christmas displaysa job that leads him to a suspiciously ostentatious ex-con and then a miracle. A hog farmers widow receives cryptic unsolicited letters from a man in Schenectady about the indefinable sweet aches of the spirit. But what will she find when she goes to meet him in the flesh?These beautifully rendered works are a testament to Vonneguts unique blend of observation and imagination. Like a present left behind by a departed loved one While Mortals Sleep bestows upon us a shimmering Kurt Vonnegut gift: a poignant reflection of our world as it is and as it could be.
language: English
title: While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction
publisher: Delacorte Press