ELIOT ROSEWATER
One of the richest and smartest men in America, Eliot Rosewater is also one of the most disillusioned. His faith in American righteousness in World War II was shattered when he found that he had killed a German fireman who was trying to put out a fire that American bombers had started.
He tried drinking, but that just ruined his health without alleviating what he saw as the alarming unfairness of the modern world. So he committed himself to a mental hospital. There he meets a kindred spirit in Billy Pilgrim, who comes to share with him the one consolation Eliot has found in life: the peculiar wisdom in the science fiction of Kilgore Trout.
Brings back a lot of memories. I first heard about fire bombing of Dresden from Vonnegut. Dresden was of course essential just as the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs were. Kurt was a lefty but I liked his writing.