Kurt Vonnegut, Novelist Who Caught the Imagination of His Age, Is Dead at 84

... Kurt Vonnegut , whose dark comic talent and urgent moral vision in ... witnessed firsthand as a young prisoner of war. Thousands of civilians ...copies, it is widely read today in high school English classes...It tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a chaplain’s assistant...Crusade.’ ” As Mr. Vonnegut was, Billy is captured and assigned to...military role of the character Billy Pilgrim in the Vonnegut novel...