Kurt Vonnegut Jr., an indescribable writer whose seven previous books are like nothing else on earth, was accorded the dubious pleasure of witnessing a 20th - century Apolcalypse. During World War II, at the age of 23, he was captured by the Germans and imprisoned beneath the city of Dresden, βThe Florence of the Elbe.β He was there on Feb. 13,1945, when the allies firebombed Dresden in a massive air attack that killed 130,000 people and destroyed a landmark of no military significance.