As a child in Midland City, Ohio, Rudolph Waltz fired off an errant round from his father's rifle, accidentally killing a pregnant woman. As a result his family is ruined, and he is jailed and beaten. Given the cruel nickname "Deadeye Dick," he is doomed to a life of shame, guilt, and repentance. After a failed attempt at being a playwright, he moves to Haiti and opens a restaurant. Meanwhile, back in Ohio, a neutron bomb blows Midland City off the map, killing everyone. Kurt Vonnegut's perennial themes of absurdity, randomness, and tragedy are vividly presented, though the rambling plot does not always support them as satisfactorily as it does in his other efforts.

Amid the horrors of a double murder and a city's annihilation by a neutron bomb, Rudy Waltz, a.k.a. Deadeye Dick, takes the reader on a zany search for absolution and happiness.

Amid the horrors of a double murder and a city's annihilation by a neutron bomb, Rudy Waltz, a.k.a. Deadeye Dick, takes the reader on a zany search for absolution and happiness.