I went into Slaughterhouse 5 with no expectations; and now, after coming out the other side, I believe that’s the only way to go into this book. Of course, I am aware I’m about to write a review that gives some insight into the book, and if you wish to read it then feel free. But I recommend not reading up on this book too much before hand.
The book is an anti-war driven sequence of events that follow the protagonist Billy Pilgrim’s fragmented memories through time.
Billy Pilgrim is an ill-trained American soldier who serves in World War II. Billy is described as a pathetic soldier who can’t do anything to help anyone around him. However, this is mainly caused by his personal fear of war. Billy is soon captured by Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. Later, Billy is taken to an empty Dresden slaughterhouse and held prisoner. It is there that Billy survives the infamous Dresden bombing carried out by both the British and American aerial bombers.
As I read through more and more of these occurrences, I found myself becoming desensitised and unsympathetic to them. They began to read like like senseless acts that the soldiers were forced to endure. And that’s exactly the point, or at least part of what Kurt Vonnegut was trying to convey in this novel. It’s the sense that war is a sequence of unnecessary and violent acts that everyone is forced to come to terms with.
Between Billy’s memories of the war, we also get to see glimpses of his life after the war, and his numerous interactions with friends and families. As mentioned, all of these memories, including the ones from the war, are presented as split paragraphs as if at random. That’s because Billy Pilgrim is granted the ability to see his entire life, from beginning to end in one snapshot.
Billy Pilgrim is described as being “unstuck in time” after briefly being captured by an alien race called the Tralfamadorians. On Tralfamador, Billy is presented with the concept of seeing in four dimensions and is given the ability to relive past or future moments in his life. Though this is often spoken of as a time-travel device in the story, one could interpret it differently.
You’d think that the frequent jumps in time would become annoying, but they’re well placed and well thought out. They are often ended with the phrase “So it goes”, which can become grating on some.
Slaughterhouse 5 is so unlike anything I’ve ever read that it had me over-thinking scenes. At times I worried that some vital plot point was going over my head. But the best way to read this book is to just take things in as they come. Don’t go looking for moments where Kurt is pulling the wool over your eyes, for it could hinder the plain genius of the book altogether.
Sprinkled throughout the book are an array of interesting characters that feel almost comical. Despite this comic-like approach, the subject matter in this book is real. It describes real situations that real people lived through and it does its just due. At the end it will leave you thinking about the concept of war and whether it’s ever fully justified.
This is my first Kurt Vonnegut novel, but I’m told there are characters in this book that show up in other books. This has sparked my intrigue to the point I am adding a bunch of his other books to my reading list. I’m eager to see whether his other books come with built in messages like this one did.
Slaughterhouse 5 is a book I highly recommend to readers who welcome something unorthodox.
