To the man with the heavy Russian accent, meeting Kurt Vonnegut was a moment of a lifetime.
Twenty-five years earlier in the Soviet Union, he had bought his first Vonnegut books in the black market at the cost of a week's salary apiece. To him, the books spoke of the freedom and hope that his spirit craved."You made life easier to live, sir," said Valery Broder, who emigrated to the United States 20 years ago, as he met his favorite author at a lecture in California recently.
For some, the 73-year-old Vonnegut is just another science-fiction writer. To others, he is a literary figure who helped define a growing distrust of modernization and governmental control in the turbulent '60s.
The depiction of war's horrors in Vonnegut's best-known book, "Slaughterhouse Five," made the novel a classic during the Vietnam era.
His other books similarly carry moral messages in an irreverent manner.
Vonnegut's own experiences as a soldier and prisoner of war in World War II didn't shape his opinion about war, he says, but it did give him some concrete experiences to write about.
"I went to war," he says matter-of-factly. "I had a lousy time."
With more than a dozen books behind him, Vonnegut's interest in writing has slowed. He blames it on age and a finite number of ideas.
"I'm not writing very much now," he confesses. His long-promised new novel, "Time Quake," in the works for seven years, is still undergoing revision after revision on Vonnegut's typewriter.
"I can't make it work to my satisfaction," he says with a shake of his head. "It just doesn't add up to a useful whole."
Much of Vonnegut's time for the past several years has been spent leading writers' workshops and speaking to audiences in various communities. He has taught at city colleges and at Harvard, lectured at Kent State and at community centers. A recent $125-a-person "writer's chat" in Sacramento, Calif., sold out, and a lecture for those paying $50 was standing-room-only.
"There's no other American I could see and be more excited," said John Barton, a 53-year-old Australian visiting on business and one of those attending the pricey writer's chat.
Vonnegut's childhood dream was to become a biochemist for the FBI. In fact, he wrote to J. Edgar Hoover while he was in junior high school, expressing that desire.
Instead, he received a master's degree in anthropology and perversely went into public relations for General Electric, then quit when he discovered he could earn more writing science-fiction serials full time for magazines like Collier's and The Saturday Evening Post.
In 1952, he published his first novel, "Player Piano." "The Sirens of Titan" followed in 1959, "Mother Night" in 1962, and several more in the rest of the '60s, including "Slaughterhouse Five" in 1969. Readers responded to his vigorous wit and he flourished in the '60s and '70s.
Vonnegut's imprint on the literary scene has been more as a cult hero than a literary figure, according to Ron Loewinsohn, an English professor at the University of California at Berkeley.
"He is an interesting writer of thoughtful science fiction," says Loewinsohn, who has included Vonnegut novels on reading lists for his contemporary literature course.
"He's a guy who has an imagination that appeals more to young people. He touches on a lot of hot buttons and he has a manner (of writing) that is very accessible."
"Slaughterhouse Five" is Vonnegut's signature book, ending up on high-school English reading lists all over the country.
"Most critics don't think much of my characters," Vonnegut says, shrugging off complaints that he doesn't flesh out real people. "If you want to create a living, breathing character, make love and wait nine months. The world population is 51/2 billion - do we need another character?"
He acknowledges that he creates "cartoon characters - they're not well-drawn." But the point of his stories is to teach moral lessons. Most of his main characters are moral and simple men struggling to survive in increasingly immoral circumstances.
Vonnegut in person is much like his books. He rails against technology - refusing even to work on a word processor - preaches a need for human kindness, and bemoans what he calls an "aliterate" society.
"People choose not to read," he says of the modern generation. "Books don't matter. TV is much more entertaining."