The Brothers Vonnegut: Science and Fiction in the House of Magic

What are the human consequences of invention? This question underlies Strand’s (Killer on the Road) account of the early life and turbulent times of Kurt Vonnegut and his brother, Bernard, a chemist. After tracing their childhood in an intellectual and pacifist Midwestern family and Kurt’s trauma as a POW who survived the firebombing of Dresden, Strand focuses on the brothers’ shared post-WWII experience working for General Electric. Bernie delights in high-profile weather modification research led by celebrity scientist Irving Langmuir. Kurt grinds at his publicist day job while struggling to establish himself as a writer. Strand recounts Kurt’s dismay as the world polarizes and scientific discoveries—even Bernie’s weather research—are co-opted by an increasingly grim and assertive military-industrial complex. The book goes on to show how Kurt reworked his GE experience, his brother’s research, and the figure of Langmuir in short stories and novels such as Player Piano and Cat’s Cradle that examined “progress and the dark side of it no one wanted to discuss.” Strand tells two good stories, the rise and fall of the science of weather modification and the development of Kurt Vonnegut as a writer, although each story might be better told in a book without so much of the other. Nevertheless, this engaging book raises many still-relevant questions about the uses of technology and nature. Agent: Jin Auh, Wylie Agency. (Nov.)