He was 84. Reading Cat's Cradle was a watershed for me. Vonnegut wrote with a power that very few have achieved.

He died as a result of brain injuries sustained in a fall a few weeks ago.

Perhaps he was finally becoming unstuck in time.

Here's a quote from the Times obit that comes from Vonnegut's last book:

When the last living thing

has died on account of us,

how poetical it would be

if Earth could say,

in a voice floating up

perhaps

from the floor

of the Grand Canyon,

“It is done.”

People did not like it here.

We'll miss him.