Vonnegut gets hometown tribute

Kurt Vonnegut’s hometown of Indianapolis has been celebrating his literary works in a “Year of Vonnegut” and will honor the late author this month at a sold-out event where he had been scheduled to speak.

Fans who were eagerly awaiting his lecture on April 27 were crestfallen at Vonnegut’s death this week, said Chris Cairo, the Marion County Public Library’s director of project development.

Mark Vonnegut will speak at Indianapolis’ Butler University in place of his father, who died Wednesday at 84 after being injured in a fall at his home in New York. The numerous honors Vonnegut was to receive at his appearance will be presented to Mark Vonnegut, a pediatrician in Milton, Mass.

Cairo said the event will serve as a public memorial for people who felt they knew Vonnegut through his works, which mixed humor with acidic social commentary.