A couple of days ago, I finished my second read through of the wonderful "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut. I initially read this while in college and I remembered a tiny bit, but it had been long enough that it felt like a fresh read. This book has a lot to offer.
The copy I read was the final copy in the Kurt Vonnegut set I bought from Easton Press. It is gorgeous and had a wonderful painting opposite the title page. The whole set was gorgeous - let's be honest.
At its core, "Slaughterhouse-Five" is an anti-war science fiction novel. It is on the shorter side, but the content packed in here is so thoroughly amazing and moving that it is a treat to spend time with it. I understand this is a semi-autobiographical book. It recounts the bombing of Dresden near the end of World War II. I did not know this but the number of casualties due to this bombing was alarming. Nearly twice as many people died in Dresden than had tied at Hiroshima when an atomic bomb was dropped on it.
At one point, Billy Pilgrim, the main character, gets captured by aliens from Tralfamadore. During his captivity, he spends time in an alien zoo with a film star. The world view of the Tralfamadore aliens is that they understand time as a constant thread. It is not linear according to them. That leads to the idea that there is no free will since everything anyone does, from their birth to their death, they had to do because that was the respective moment for whatever action takes place. Indeed, the aliens respond to Billy's inquiry about free will by saying that of all of the alien planets they have visited, Earth is the only one that discusses free will.
I don't buy it, but I do like how the time travel works in "Slaughterhouse-Five." Billy is always aware of what is coming next, and he accepts it as such with relative complacency. His daughter, Barbara, and others become convinced that Billy has gone insane from the war experiences. It would appear to be the case; however, Billy really just has a worldview that lends itself to being resigned and quiet. It's not trauma - though trauma would certainly be there. No, it was his abduction.
I'd be remiss to not share a quote from the book so here it goes: "She upset Billy simply by being his mother. She made him feel embarrassed and ungrateful and weak because she had gone to so much trouble to give him life, and to keep that life going, and Bill didn't really like life at all."
Near the end of the book, a soldier gets caught stealing a tea kettle in Dresden after its bombing and is executed by firing squad. That lead to the illustration opposite the title page being what it is. It looks random, but it is really just another sad event in the middle of a tumultuous war. Being a novel set during a war, there is an incredible amount of death in this novel. The author almost always says "So it goes." after any death no matter how pivotal to the plot it is. This echoes the detached theme associated with the Tralfamadore perspective of time. On another level, the pure repetition of this statement throughout the book reinforces how common death was in the story. It works well.
"Slaughterhouse-Five" is my favorite from the Vonnegut Easton Press set. I'm torn on what my second favorite is...but am leaning towards "Cat's Cradle" "Slaughterhouse-Five" is a wonderful read and I highly recommend it - especially to anyone that hasn't read it previously. Outstanding book. Good times.
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