title: While Mortals Sleep: Unpublished Short Fiction
author:  Kurt Vonnegut 
description: The 16 previously unpublished short stories of this collection, taken from the beginning of Vonnegut's career, show a young author already grappling with themes and ideas that would define his work for decades to come. "Girl Pool" features typist Amy Lou Little, employee of the Kafkaesque Montezuma Forge and Foundry Company, who is tasked with transcribing a plea for help she receives on her Dictaphone from an escaped, dying murderer hiding somewhere in the works of the company's cavernous factory. The tale reveals Vonnegut investigating one of his recurring themes: the isolation brought by technology and the necessity for basic humanity in the workplace. The title story melds a sentimental meditation on the true meaning of Christmas with elements of the mystery genre as a hard-nosed reporter stalks the story of stolen nativity scene characters. While these early stories show an author still testing the boundaries of his craft and obsessions, Vonnegut's acute moral sense and knack for compelling prose are very much on display. In the foreword, Dave Eggers calls Vonnegut "a hippie Mark Twain," which perfectly captures an essential truth about this esteemed author. (Jan.) (c) <BR>Copyright &copy; Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  **BY KURT VONNEGUT**  
    
  
  
  A Man Without a Country
  
  
  Armageddon in Retrospect
  
  
  Bagombo Snuff Box
  
  
  Between Time and Timbuktu
  
  
  Bluebeard Breakfast of Champions
  
  
  Canary in a Cat House
  
  
  Cat’s Cradle
  
  
  Deadeye Dick
  
  
  Fates Worse Than Death
  
  
  Galápagos
  
  
  God Bless You, Dr. Kevorkian
  
  
  God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
  
  
  Happy Birthday, Wanda June
  
  
  Hocus Pocus
  
  
  Jailbird
  
  
  Like Shaking Hands with God ( _with_ Lee Stringer)
  
  
  Look at the Birdie
  
  
  Mother Night
  
  
  Palm Sunday
  
  
  Player Piano
  
  
  The Sirens of Titan
  
  
  Slapstick
  
  
  Slaughterhouse-Five
  
  
  Timequake
  
  
  Wampeters, Foma & Granfalloons
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  _While Mortals Sleep_ is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and
  incidents, fictional and factual, are the products of the author’s
  imagination. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses,
  companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental. The writings by Kurt
  Vonnegut in