“Like Shaking Hands with God: A Conversation About Writing”
by Kurt Vonnegut & Lee Stringer
Published: December 2000
ISBN: 0743410580

(Updated: July 2, 2006.)

From the Publisher…

In this elegantly produced, extended conversation celebrating the writing craft, Kurt Vonnegut and acclaimed Grand Central Winter author Lee Stringer explore what it means to be a writer — and what it means to be human. It is an increasingly rare occasion these days to find two writers willing to speak candidly, thoughtfully, and concretely about the intersection of life and art. And that these two writers happen to be Kurt Vonnegut and Lee Stringer makes Like Shaking Hands With God a truly historic and joyous occasion. The setting is a bookstore in New York City in October 1998. Before a crowd of several hundred, Vonnegut and Stringer jump into the aesthetic fray, taking up humanity, writing, salvation, art, and the challenge of living, day to day.

As Vonnegut would say, “It was a magical evening.” A passionate and inspiring discourse between two extraordinary writers, Like Shaking Hands With God is a book for anyone interested in why the simple act of writing things down can be so much more important than the amount of memory in our computers.

I wish that I had been present in this bookstore on this evening. I would have liked to have felt this moment “really”. Reading about it was fine but I can tell that the real magic was in having been present and in the presence of.

Sometimes words are simply words. And joyous occasions are occasions. Reading this book even only for “this” is worth it.