Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel

By Kurt Vonnegut

Five out of Five Stars

The classic novel, Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel by the late literary icon Kurt Vonnegut was not on my reading list, but found its way to the top of it based on recommendations from fans of the novel. While I was aware of it, and Vonnegut’s career, I had yet to read any of his works. Seeing how I had also fared well lately in recommendations in what I should read, I thought I should give it a go.

Writing a review of such an iconic and classic book is daunting. The temptation is to search the Internet for reviews and analysis of the novel and parrot that back in the review, so as to make myself look like a literary intellectual. That would also be more than a bit of a cheat. The beauty of writing, as in many other forms of art, is that it is all interpretive; there are shared experiences, but we all get something unique or different to ourselves through art – how our minds interpret what we read and what we see; so, it’s only fair that I relate to Slaughterhouse-Five, having been read by me in 2015, as I experienced it.

The book itself, told in an almost stream-of-consciousness format, by Billy Pilgrim, focuses, or I should say, is anchored by his remembrances of being a prisoner of war during WWII, and held in the German city of Dresden during its bombing by the Allies on February 13 to 15^th in 1945; while history has now determined that the bombings claimed 22,000 to 25,000 lives, for the longest time, and in 1969 when Slaughterhouse-Five was originally published, it was believed the death toll was in the 100,000 to 200,000 range.

Billy, an inept soldier at best, is obviously deeply troubled by the bombing and his survival during it, and in telling what happened, also relates other experiences in his life, doing so by explaining that after he was kidnapped by Outer Space beings known as Tralfamadorians, he was able to time travel back and forth through time, visiting different points of his life – at least when he isn’t stuck in a Tralfamoadorian zoo, where he is observed and eventually mated with a “B” movie actress who may have also dabbled in pornography.

In telling this tale, Vonnegut doesn’t structure his novel in a traditional manner, but bounces around in space and time relating Billy’s remembrances – an approach that works beautifully. In reading Slaughterhouse-Five, it dawned on me that living through a time of war must be a strange and surreal experience, as people act and behave differently – outside the norms of proper, expected society. Billy relating his wartime experiences is almost as farfetched and unbelievable as his time traveling experiences, and time with the Tralfamadorians – both might as well be the same. I was aware that Slaughterhouse-Five had been described as an “anti-war” novel, and got that, as the behavior of human beings during war, as described by Billy, is as silly and crazy as his remembrances of space creatures; both are out of place and time. Add to this, his mundane life as an optometrist, in a functional, safe marriage, and the absurdity of war is driven even further home.

I suspect Billy Pilgrim is telling this tale late in his life, and to make sense of what he went through during WWII and the bombing, he is manufacturing events he experienced into a wild and crazy tale, that in many ways, through the philosophy of the Tralfamadorians takes away the concept of free will, and as such absolves him of his participation in something as horrific and terrible as WWII. His way of coming to terms with what he experienced in Europe during that time.

Published in 1969, Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel, written by Kurt Vonnegut is still a powerful read; a WWII novel unlike any other, that still has something to say, and can still prompt thought. The absurdity of war has not left us; while we no longer fight World Wars, the insanity of conflict, death and destruction still haunt us, and it’s in reading something as creative and inspired as Slaughterhouse-Five that it causes us to pause for a second and wonder just what the hell we think we’re doing, or accomplishing, in our desire as a species to embrace violence?

Thought provoking and brilliant, Slaughterhouse-Five is a classic novel worth reading.