Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt VonnegutMy rating: 5 of 5 stars
Book Review: Slaughterhouse Five or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death (1969)
(Just for fun, I have decided to write this book review in the form of Questions & Answers. I ask your indulgence, but not too seriously.)
Question:
Why should I read this book? Why should I read any of Kurt Vonnegut's books?
Answer:
Those are very good questions. They are questions that would probably have caused Kurt Vonnegut to laugh out loud. Then he would have made a great joke. He might say something about how this novel is dangerous. You probably shouldn’t read it. He might mention the circuit court judge who, in 1972, called the book "depraved, immoral, psychotic, vulgar and anti-Christian.” I can hear Kurt Vonnegut laughing, saying something like: “You know, that judge was right on three of five counts. That’s a pretty good batting average.” Slaughterhouse Five was a controversial book and a banned book. That, in and of itself, is a good reason to read it.
Kicking Mr. Vonnegut out of the conversation, there are a number of other very good reasons for reading Slaughterhouse Five. First, it is a very funny book. It is laugh-out-loud funny, at times, but it is also very funny in ironic and subtle ways. Another reason for reading this book is that it is one of the great American Anti-War books to come out of World War Two. Perhaps the best reason to read this novel is because it is a damn good novel; funny, engaging, irreverent, and sharp-witted. The author’s satirical commentary on society was very valid in 1969, and is perhaps even more so today. “So it goes,” as Vonnegut would famously write.
Question:
Did the author have any real experience with war, or is this just a story he made up in his head?
Answer:
Kurt Vonnegut’s experiences in World War Two were all too real. He was assigned to the 106th Infantry Division, serving in the European Theater. His unit was relatively inexperienced. During the Battle of the Bulge in late 1944, the 106th was overrun by German Panzer units. Vonnegut was captured along with thousands of other Allied soldiers. He was interned at Dresden, Germany, a city with very little military significance. Two months later, in February of 1945, Allied bombers struck the city. The bombing went on for three days; destroying much of the city, and killing tens of thousands of German civilians.
Mr. Vonnegut survived the bombing attack in a below-ground meat locker at the slaughterhouse where the prisoners were housed; hence the title Slaughterhouse Five. When the bombing ended, the prisoners of war were put to work excavating the bodies of dead civilians from the piles of rubble. This would become one of the formative experiences in the young author’s life. In later years, he would describe the grisly work as a "terribly elaborate Easter-egg hunt.” After his experiences at Dresden, Mr. Vonnegut was very much an avowed pacifist. Not so surprising when one thinks about it.
Question:
Okay, but what is the story actually about?
Answer:
Slaughterhouse Five is the story of Billy Pilgrim becoming “unstuck in time.” Because he has come unstuck, he is able to move forward and backward through his own life. The story unfolds in a series of short vignettes, with the reader seeing little slices of Billy’s life as he experiences and re-experiences them. Vonnegut quipped that each of these vignettes made up one joke. It takes a bit of getting used to, but the reader will be soon be bouncing through time alongside Billy.
The story opens with the Author describing his twenty-plus year struggle to write a story about the Dresden bombings. Once the set-up is in place, we jump into Billy Pilgrim’s life. He is at his daughter’s wedding, then, oops, he goes out for a bit of fresh air and is captured by aliens; the Tralfamadorians. He is unstuck and finds himself back in Dresden, a POW once more. When Billy gets back to earth, he talks about the aliens. Folks on earth quite naturally think that Billy is crazy, so it is off to the Psych Ward for our protagonist.
So it goes; a series of small jig-saw puzzle pieces that all end up fitting together quite nicely: Billy Pilgrim as a successful adult, Billy Pilgrim on an alien planet, Billy Pilgrim back in the horrific ruins of Dresden. The story moves forward in a series of spirals, with each loop progressing a bit further through the tale. Woven through the vignettes is an amazing satirical social commentary. This commentary is, in my opinion, the real joy of this novel. Human beings are strange and funny creatures. Their beliefs and actions, when seen through the lens of Billy’s time-travels, are even stranger and funnier.
Question:
Hmmm… is this one of those ‘Really-Hard-to-Read’ books?
Answer:
No, not at all. Although the description may make it sound a bit difficult, Slaughterhouse Five is actually a romp of a book. It is fairly short for one thing; just 275 pages. Vonnegut uses a simple and straight-forward writing style. His ideas and satire are complex and compelling, but his written language is very easy to read.
This is a modern classic, to be sure, but a very accessible modern classic. For me, Kurt Vonnegut has always seemed like a Counter-Culture reincarnation of Mark Twain. Not only did the two men look a bit alike, their views on human nature were not that dissimilar. And, like many social commentators who live to a ripe old age, they both grew more pessimistic as they grew older. As an aside, I find this totally understandable. Despite the best efforts of Satirists, human beings just keep doing the same silly stuff. We humans still bomb cities, knowing it is not the brightest thing to do. So it goes.
I recommend this book very highly. Sure, it is an important novel. Yes, it has been listed as in the Top 100 American novels by everyone and their uncle. While that is all fine and dandy, the real reason to read this book is that it is a funny, insightful, compelling look at why human beings do some of the crazy stuff that we do.
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