Kurt Vonnegut, author of classic American novels of the 1960’s and 70’s, including “Slaughterhouse-Five,” “Cat’s Cradle” and “God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater” died last night in Manhattant at the age of 84.

In the obituary in the New York Times, Dinita Smith writes, “Like Mark Twain, Mr. Vonnegut used humor to tackle the basic questions of human existence: Why are we in this world? Is there a presiding figure to make sense of all this, a god who in the end, despite making people suffer, wishes them well?

“He also shared with Twain a profound pessimism. “Mark Twain,” Mr. Vonnegut wrote in his 1991 book, “Fates Worse Than Death: An Autobiographical Collage,” “finally stopped laughing at his own agony and that of those around him. He denounced life on this planet as a crock. He died.””