A hilarious and moving account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a soldier, who comes unstuck in time. The book follows Pilgrim in his leaps through events strung together with threads of familiarity, yet separated by time, and is the most accurate depiction of a man walking through the memory lane. The deliberate destruction of chronology makes the narrative complex, and sometimes difficult to follow. But this book packs so much that it leaves you with wonder at the mastery of Vonnegut.
There is a reason Billy Pilgrim has been made so empty. The focus is not on his person but on what he sees. So we are not listening to the man but seeing what he saw and feeling what he felt. The events are deliberately disjointed to fit into the tralfamadorian framework of time. As for the narration itself, the apathy seems to mimic the numbness caused by the war. Yet, Vonnegut doesn’t shy away from portraying the cruelty humanity imposes on itself, whether be it the treatment of POWs or the bombing of Dresden. He doesn’t allow an escape in the form of a tralfamadorian utopia, for the higher beings are as prone to destruction and war as us- what makes them different from us is how they look back on themselves, accept their flaws and choose to focus on good memories.
Vonnegut’s writing is clever and sharp. His ability to parade the macabre on the carriage of wit is exceptional.
Slaughterhouse Five is an interesting take on life and war, the fragments and flaws of the same, and the absurdity and pointless of all.
roastedmoongfalis 