The first Kurt Vonnegut book I ever read was "Hocus Pocus." After a long day of working on my dad's boat, he left me to sit in his car while he went into the marina bar to have some drinks. I was somewhere around 9 or 10, I think. My dad had lots of junk in his car, because he was a traveling salesman and was always on the road. So I would pass the time reading cassette tape inserts, ads, cigarette packages -- anything other than the newspaper (except for the comics). Being especially bored this time, I picked up a book I saw in the back seat. It had a neat cover which intrigued my small mind. You see, I wasn't an especially avid reader at that age. In fact, I didn't read hardly anything at all. I was barely able to make it halfway through a Star Trek novel when I was 6, and that was the last novel I had tried to read. I dreaded school sessions where we would have to slog through the "Weekly Reader." So, you see, I had to be incredibly bored before I would resort to reading for any reason.

But as soon as I read page one of that book, I was hooked. I didn't understand half of what was said, but that was part of what captivated me. I read passages over and over, trying to figure out what they meant. My dad wouldn't let me keep the book, so I don't think I ever finished it. But he had a veritable library of Vonnegut titles, like Galapagos and Breakfast of Champions that I devoured over time. Between that young age and my 20th birthday, I think I read every Vonnegut book ever written. They transformed me from a kid who hated reading into a kid who wanted to be an English major and write books for a living.

I didn't know anything about politics and, like most American boys, I was thrilled by war and violence. But Vonnegut's books shaped me in a subtle way -- not with heavy handed diatribes but clever and witty tales that contained undeniable and fundamental truths that can't be expressed directly. Sort of like how you can only see a black hole because of the light around it. He was a master storyteller and, in my opinion, American fiction died with him today. But maybe some dopey kid who doesn't like reading will find an old Vonnegut novel in his dad's car and be inspired to resurrect it. In this way, Vonnegut will never die.