Kurt Vonnegut is a unique figure in modern American literature. The writer's tragicomic works, imbued with caustic irony and extraordinary humor, novels in which fantasy and the grotesque are indistinguishably intertwined with reality, made Vonnegut one of the most famous prose writers of the 20th century. Early stories of the great Vonnegut. Stories in which he - then a young, aspiring writer - was still groping for his unique style. Already truly “Vonnegutian” humor - flying, sarcastic, almost surreal. However, the plots and style of these stories still belong to the classic “New York school”, so beloved by intellectual readers of the middle of the last century - and which has retained its direct and subtle charm to this day.