Cape ties to writer Kurt Vonnegut celebrated

In 1952, a struggling writer from the Midwest named Kurt Vonnegut moved to Cape Cod with his family, staying first briefly in Osterville before finding a home on Scudder Lane in Barnstable.

For a supplementary income, he opened a Saab dealership on Route 6A, the first of its kind on the Cape. The franchise closed in the early '60s.

“I believe my failure as a dealer so long ago explains what would otherwise remain a mystery: why the Swedes have never given me a Nobel Prize for literature,” Vonnegut would later facetiously remark.

Like so many experiences in Vonnegut's life, his time running a Cape car dealership worked its way into his fiction. And just as the area influenced Vonnegut's writing, so, too, did the author, who died in 2007, leave an indelible mark on Barnstable and on the Cape as a whole.

The acclaimed writer will be honored Friday through Sunday with a celebration organized by Sturgis Library in conjunction with the Vonnegut family, the Barnstable Historical Society, Tales of Cape Cod, the Barnstable Comedy Club, the Cape Cod Art Association, the Barnstable Fire Department as well as other village businesses and organizations.

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The goal is to “celebrate the life and work of Kurt Vonnegut and his connection to this village and Cape Cod, particularly,” explains library director Lucy Loomis. “He did a lot all over Cape Cod.” The events also are designed to acquaint new readers with the man and his work.

The three-day celebration will commemorate the artist and his acerbic, worldly wit with a

wide variety of events, including lectures, film screenings, and music. Vonnegut's son Mark, a

pediatrician and memoirist, will participate in a panel discussion about the author on Saturday evening.

The weekend will culminate with a Chowderfest Sunday at Sturgis Library, featuring food and Kurt's Farmhouse Saison, a beer developed specifically for the celebration by Cape Cod Beer.

The idea for the celebration started with conversation between people in Barnstable village, according to Loomis. “We thought that it would be a great idea to do it because he lived here in the '50s, '60s and early '70s and nothing (like this) had ever been done on a big scale and as a community event. We figured that since the library is kind of the community center that this was a thing that we could probably pull off.”

Vonnegut was born in Indianapolis in 1922, studied chemistry at Cornell University, but, before graduating, enrolled in the Army to fight World War II. He shipped off to Europe only to be captured by Germans in the Battle of the Bulge soon after his arrival. He was a prisoner in Dresden, where, on Feb. 13, 1945 American and British bombers famously firebombed the city. Vonnegut survived the bombing in an underground slaughterhouse and meat locker alongside other prisoners.

The experience and the horrific visions of the decimated aftermath of the city inspired what many consider to be Vonnegut's finest work: “Slaughterhouse-Five.”

After the war, Vonnegut returned to the U.S. and got married. After stints as a police reporter in Chicago and in public-relations man for General Electric in Schenectady, New York, Vonnegut decided to quit his day job and move with his family to the Cape to pursue his writerly ambitions. He had visited Provincetown the year before on vacation and fallen in love with the place.

Despite the ill-fated “Saab Cape Cod” venture, Vonnegut developed and defined his storytelling craft during his time on the Cape, writing some of his best-known novels, including “The Sirens of Titan,” “Mother Night” and “Cat's Cradle.” He honed his style here, and tackled subjects as diverse as religion, government, war, science and society in general in his fiction.

His works are a combination of serious social commentary, science fiction and comic absurdity. The publishing of “Slaughterhouse-Five” in 1969 marked his big breakthrough and catapulted Vonnegut to literary stardom.

The Cape and its influence appear repeatedly in Vonnegut's work. “Cat's Cradle,” an arms race satire, centers on a scientist who happens to own a cottage on the Cape. His 1968 short story “Welcome to the Monkey House” takes place in a dystopian Hyannis. In a later novel, “Breakfast of Champions,” Vonnegut invokes his experience selling Saabs on Route 6A for the character of Midwestern Pontiac dealer Dwayne Hoover.

Beyond his literary output here, Vonnegut also distinguished himself as an active member of the local community. “He wrote a lot of articles and expressed his opinions,” Loomis says. “People would give him his privacy but allow him to be part of the community as well.” He served as a Sturgis Library trustee, was a member of and actor for the Barnstable Comedy Club, and also participated in the Orleans Arena Theater.

As for what drew Vonnegut to the Cape in the first place, Loomis speculates that it was the

Cape's mix of “down-to-earth New England-ness” with “a sense of quirkiness and fun.”

“I think Barnstable Village, particularly, is that way,” she says. “It has a flavor of being steeped in history but yet everyone is kind of a character. I think he probably appreciated that.”

What: Vonnegut Celebration. When: Friday through Sunday. Where: Various locations in Barnstable Village. Most events free; ticketed events: $18-$25. Information: http://www.sturgislibrary.org/vonnegut-celebration Highlights: · Screening of Liz Argo's documentary film “Stagestruck: Confessions From Summer Stock,” about Orleans Arena Theater, 3 p.m. at St. Mary's Church Hall, 3055 Main St. The film includes author Kurt Vonnegut reflecting on his time there. · Talk with Don Farber, Vonnegut's friend, lawyer and agent, 7 to 8:30 p.m. Friday, Tales of Cape Cod, 3046 Main St., Barnstable. Tickets: $18, includes admission to Wine and Cheese Reception at Sturgis Library at 5:30 p.m. · Talk by Marc Leeds, author of “The Vonnegut Encyclopedia,” 2 to 2:45 p.m. Saturday, Sturgis Library, 3090 Main St., Barnstable. · Screening of “Slaughterhouse Five,” the 1972 film based on Vonnegut's novel, 3 to 5 p.m. Saturday, Barnstable Comedy Club, 3171 Main St., Barnstable. · Vonnegut Panel Discussion, with Farber, Leeds, son Mark Vonnegut and Julia Whitehead, director of the Kurt Vonnegut Library in Indianapolis, 7 p.m., Unitarian Church of Barnstable, 3330 Main St. · “The Art of the Vonnegut Doodle,” discussion and workshop led by Richard Neal, 11 a.m. to 12:30 p.m. Sunday, Cape Cod Art Association, 3480 Main St., Barnstable. · Staged reading of “Happy Birthday, Wanda June,” 4 p.m., Barnstable Comedy Club · Chowderfest with Vonnegut Beer, 6 p.m., Sturgis Library Information, tickets and full calendar of events: http://www.sturgislibrary.org/vonnegut-celebration/

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