"And So It Goes: Kurt Vonnegut: A Life," by Charles J. Shields (Henry Holt, $30) In his new biography of the popular writer, Charles J. Shields doesn't depict Kurt Vonnegut as a saint. Far from it. But Shields' thoroughly researched, smoothly written life story does deepen my sense of amazement that Vonnegut wasn't crazier, meaner and more self-destructive than he sometimes was.