Cat’s Cradle – Kurt Vonnegut

My second wife had left me on the grounds that I was to pessimistic for an optimist to live with.

This is a classic Vonnegut sentence: funny, understanding of human foibles and somehow profound. I don’t know of any other writer who tackles the Big Questions with such humanity, insight and humour. For a book that deals with Hiroshima and the innate hypocrisy of religious institutions, it had me laughing more than you might imagine. Wonderful stuff.