Kurt Vonnegut and the American Novel is an exciting re‎-evaluation of this much overlooked author‎'‎s work‎.‎ Tally deftly rereads Vonnegut‎'‎s novels‎,‎ situating them in an American tradition of fiction that seeks to make sense of the larger American experience‎.‎ The book skilfully interweaves a germane selection of literary and critical theory to convincingly argue that Vonnegut should be reassessed as a substantial Modernist rather than Postmodernist writer‎.‎ ‎-‎- David Simmons‎,‎ Lecturer in American Literature‎,‎ Film and Television Studies‎,‎ Northampton University‎,‎ UK Robert Tally‎'‎s book makes a serious scholarly contribution not only to Vonnegut studies‎,‎ but to the field of contemporary American literature in general‎.‎ Arguing persuasively that Vonnegut is a ‎"‎reluctant postmodernist‎,‎‎"‎ a ‎"‎misanthropic humanist‎"‎ with modernist longings‎,‎ Tally situates his readings of Vonnegut‎'‎s fourteen novels amid recent critical debates about American literature‎,‎ about postmodernism‎,‎ and about what it means to be a human being‎.‎ The book is that rarest of academic works‎,‎ at once critically well‎-informed and eminently readable‎.‎ ‎-‎- Susan Farrell‎,‎ Professor of English‎,‎ College of Charleston‎,‎ USA A Melville as well as a Vonegut scholar‎,‎ Tally ‎(‎Texas State Univ‎.‎‎)‎ grapples with Vonegut‎'‎s novels as attempts‎,‎ albeit failed ones‎,‎ at writing the ‎'‎great American novel‎.‎‎'‎ In Tally‎'‎s view‎,‎ this project constitutes partly an attempt to ‎'‎grasp the essence of American life at its moment‎.‎‎'‎ Recommended‎.‎ Upper division undergraduates and above‎.‎ ‎-‎-L‎.‎ A‎.‎ Brewer‎,‎ Fortis College ‎-‎- CHOICE Reviews Kurt Vonnegut and the American Novel does much to reposition Vonnegut as a major American writer‎.‎ By approaching Vonnegut‎'‎s oeuvre as an integrated postmodern iconography‎,‎ a strategic project bridging the gap between modernism and postmodernism‎,‎ Tally reveals Vonnegut to be a serious‎,‎ deeply imaginative writer whose fictions intervene in major intellectual debates‎-political and theoretical‎-that continue to impact contemporary social developments‎.‎ Boundary 2‎:‎ An International Journal of Literature and Culture Robert Tally In Kurt Vonnegut and The American Novel‎:‎ A Postmodern Iconography‎,‎ argues that Vonnegut‎'‎s work is ‎"‎untimely‎"‎ in that he writes as a modernist stuck ‎"‎in a postmodern condition‎.‎‎"‎ Tally then uses this distinction to drive a wide‎-ranging discussion of postmodernism and other theories relevant to reading Vonnegut claiming that Vonnegut employs the novel form to construct a postmodern iconography‎.‎ The result is a very readable‎,‎ highly original‎,‎ clearly focused monograph‎.‎ Donald E‎.‎ Morse‎,‎ University of Debrecen‎,‎ author of The Novels of Kurt Vonnegut‎:‎ Imagine Being an American Kurt Vonnegut and the American Novel offers a comprehensive and considered take on Vonnegut‎'‎s novels in the light of influential philosophers and cultural theorists‎.‎ Where this may be of particular interest to Vonnegut fans and American literature scholars‎,‎ the application of the particular theoretical positions are generalizable and useful to a far wider readership‎.‎ The book succeeds in capturing the particular genius of Vonnegut‎'‎s work‎,‎ and certainly encourages or reignites quietly dormant fandom‎.‎ ‎-‎- Rosslyn Almond Transnational Literature