Book Review: Slaughterhouse-Five
As I grow more and more in love with reading I have been trying to expand out to authors I haven't already been exposed to. I take recommendations from wherever I can get them. I read a book last year, The Universe Versus Alex Woods that spent a lot of time talking about a book club that just focused in on the work of Kurt Vonnegut. These raving endorsements put Vonnegut on my radar and so this past week I read through my first Vonnegut novel, Slaughterhouse-Five.
I've got to admit I'm not exactly sure what I read or how to describe my feelings on Slaughterhouse-Five. If anything it is the most bizarre novel I've ever read. I spent more time going back and re-reading parts of this novel then any other novel. This is a book about time travel, aliens, war, life, love, and basically any other topic Vonnegut can throw at you.
Slaughterhouse-Five is about the bombing in Dresden and a soldier named Billy Pilgrim. The story is told through his perspective and his mind. It's an interesting perspective because like Billy the story jumps all over through time and space. There's a lot of subtlety and nuance that I think requires either a second reading or a ton of attention and re-reading. I feel like looking back on the journey that is Slaughterhouse-Five that I missed some of the stories messages.
I was left more then anything puzzled. I didn't feel like I had a great grasp on what had transpired. There were moments with Billy that I became transfixed with his wandering mind. I loved some of the segments in space where you could see an outsiders perspective on the world. But more times then not I felt like the messages of the book were either too nuanced or not as well thought out as they should have been to nail it home. "So it goes..."
