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A review by maxstone98
If This Isn't Nice, What Is? (Much) Expanded Second Edition: The Graduation Speeches and Other Words to Live by by Kurt Vonnegut
4.0
Reading a bunch of speeches (mostly graduation speeches) in a row isn't ideal, there tends to be a lot of repetition. On the other hand, they are great speeches for the most part, kind of an ideal way to spend 15 minutes occasionally would be to dip into one of these. Vonnegut is, like Mark Twain, a really pleasing combination of wise and hilarious.
He has a few themes, one of them is the value of community and extended family, and how modern life suffers for lack of that. That's not original to him, of course, but I thought he made a really interesting connection when talking about nuclear families: "A husband, a wife, and some kids is not a family; it's a terribly vulnerable survival unit. Now those of you who get married or are married, when you fight with your spouse, what each of you will be saying to the other one, [because you're human,] actually is, 'You're not enough people. You're only one person. I should have [dozens or] hundreds of people around.'"
He has a few themes, one of them is the value of community and extended family, and how modern life suffers for lack of that. That's not original to him, of course, but I thought he made a really interesting connection when talking about nuclear families: "A husband, a wife, and some kids is not a family; it's a terribly vulnerable survival unit. Now those of you who get married or are married, when you fight with your spouse, what each of you will be saying to the other one, [because you're human,] actually is, 'You're not enough people. You're only one person. I should have [dozens or] hundreds of people around.'"