Slaughterhouse-Five

I suspect this became Vonnegut’s most popular novel because it was an antiwar novel published during the height of the Vietnam War (1969). However, I regard “Mother Night” as his best. This is still an interesting read even if not at the 5-star level of that earlier work. It is based on Vonnegut’s experience as a prisoner of war in Germany when he witnessed the bombing of Dresden two months before the war’s end.

The main character, Billy Pilgrim, is likewise a POW in Germany when Dresden is firebombed by the US Air Force and 135,000 people are killed. Billy’s wartime experiences are traumatic. More than two decades later, Billy is one of only two survivors of a plane crash that fractured his skull. He is treated by a brain surgeon.

Billy is a time traveler. The year before the plane crash, he is kidnapped by a flying saucer and taken to the planet Tralfamadore where he learns that free will does not exist and all moments in time may be revisited. No one truly dies. Billy is returned to Earth as though all his time on Tralfamadore only took a fraction of a second in Earth time. The author leaves it up to the reader to decide whether Billy’s time travels and kidnapping are real or delusional.

After he leaves the hospital following his brain surgery, he makes it his quest to teach the world about his experiences on Tralfamadore and the permanence of events.

Because the novel does not follow a linear structure, it took me a few chapters to get comfortable with it, but then it became much more enjoyable.

This novel may not suit all tastes, but if you enjoyed any of Vonnegut’s other novels, then you will enjoy this one as well.

I swear to god if he says “so it goes” one more goddamn time

Surreal telling of the Dresden firestorm during WWII. A well-told story.