Kurt Vonnegut, one of the most important American writers of our time, was also a famous speaker at graduation ceremonies of American universities. He never earned a degree himself, and in his remarks to each graduating class, there is always joy, but also a kind of self-deprecation and subtle irony, from a man who speaks as a sage about an achievement he never had the chance to enjoy for himself.

“My uncle Alex, who is now up there in Heaven,” says the declared humanist Vonnegut to the young audience in front of him, “was particularly aware of a flaw that many of us have, the fact that we so rarely pay attention to our happy moments while we are living them. He did his best to give them the due significance. We might have been drinking lemonade in the shade of an apple tree in the summer, and Uncle Alex would pause the conversation to say, ‘If this isn’t nice, then what is?’”

IF THIS ISN’T NICE, THEN WHAT IS? includes nine speeches by Kurt Vonnegut – seven from universities, one from the Indiana Civil Liberties Union, and one from the Carl Sandburg Award ceremony – edited by Dan Wakefield, a novelist and close friend of Vonnegut.

“Like Vonnegut’s work itself, these texts combine subversive humor, political pessimism, and joy of life, with an entirely unpredictably charming result.” Chicago Tribune

“Pure acid!” Entertainment Weekly

“The cranky eccentricity of Kurt Vonnegut, like that of his literary predecessor Mark Twain, is characterized by cheerfulness and a witty intelligence.” A. O. Scott, The New York Times Book Review