The Package

Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (November 11, 1922 – April 11, 2007) – an American writer, was born in Indianapolis, Indiana. After serving in a World War II combat unit, he worked as a police reporter. Marked by wry black humor, Vonnegut's satirical, pessimistic, and morally urgent novels frequently protest the horrors of the 20th century, as in the best-selling Slaughterhouse-Five (1969; film, 1972). His fiction spoke with particular forcefulness to the generation that came of age in the 1960s and 70s. Vonnegut's books frequently include elements of science fiction, featuring fantastic plots and sometimes involving such devices as trips in outer space, time faults, and apocalyptic destruction. Among his other novels are Player Piano (1952), Mother Night (1961; film, 1996), Cat's Cradle (1963), God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965), Breakfast of Champions (1973; film, 1999), Deadeye Dick (1983), Bluebeard (1987), and the novel-memoir Timequake (1997). He also wrote short stories, plays, and essays, e.g., the collections Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons (1974), The Man without a Country (2005), and the posthumously published Armageddon in Retrospect (2008). Awards and honors: State Author of New York/Edith Wharton Citation of Merit (2001-2003); Purple Heart; American Academy of Arts and Letters Academy Award (1970), Humanist of the Year (1992), Asteroid Namesake (asteroid 25399 vonnegut).

The Package is a short story by Kurt Vonnegut, first published on 26 July 1952 in Collier's weekly, and later in Bagombo Snuff Box in 1999.
“The Package” offers insight into the lives of Earl and Maude Fenton, who have just returned from a world cruise to their seemingly perfect, “package” home, which comes complete with a variety of gadgets and buttons to press. As soon as Earl returns home, he receives a phone call from his former fraternity brother, Charley Freeman. Fenton invites Freeman into his home and at the same time, allows a photographer and writer from Home Beautiful