So it goes

"A science-fiction writer who lied about being a science-fiction writer because he got more money that way. He wrote whole novels in baby talk, with sixth-grade drawings in them, and third-grade science, and he knew better."

They don't name him explicitly but that is how Niven and Pournelle describe Kurt Vonnegut in their Inferno. I don't think they like him much. I do. I like him even when I agree with the above analysis. I have read most of his work and have never failed to be amazed how such simple seeming prose can have such an impact. It is clever and funny and speaks to the condition of its time. Strangely enough however, until today, I had not read one of his best known works Cat's Cradle. I can only put it down to lack of availability. This is the book that contains ice-nine, one of the most accessible and fascinating pieces of fictional science ever. Otherwise Cat's Cradle is like the other books Vonnegut wrote around the same time - clever and funny and speaks to the condition of its time.