RIP kurt vonnegut

earlier today, i saw the story in the star that vonnegut would be unable to come to indy as planned. (as i blogged back in january, 2007 was officially "year of the vonnegut" in indianapolis.) but i didn't realize quite how serious his health problems were:

Kurt Vonnegut, whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in novels like "Slaughterhouse-Five," "Cat's Cradle" and "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" caught the temper of his times and the imagination of a generation, died Wednesday night in Manhattan. He was 84 and had homes in Manhattan and in Sagaponack on Long Island.

His death was reported by Morgan Entrekin, a longtime family friend, who said Mr. Vonnegut suffered brain injuries as a result of a fall several weeks ago.

year of the vonnegut will almost surely go on in indianapolis, but with an extra weight now that vonnegut himself has passed away, mere weeks before he was scheduled to come back to the town where he grew up.¶