From The Art and Popular Culture Encyclopedia

Biography

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. [1] (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) was an American novelist known for works blending satire, black comedy, and science fiction, such as Slaughterhouse-Five (1969), Cat's Cradle (1963), and Breakfast of Champions (1973).

On peepholes

In some of Kurt Vonnegut's novels, when somebody dies, Vonnegut does not call it dying. He writes that this person had their "peephole closed" and when they are born, they simply have their "peephole opened". This, again, seems to show, that human life is no more than "peeping" through a hole and death means only an end to this. --http://www.geocities.com/hollywood/4953/kv_vonnebug3.html [Feb 2006]