Slaughterhouse Five

SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE
by Kurt Vonnegut

Award: National Book 1970

Date Read: March 9, 2002

Just thinking about Kurt Vonnegut makes me all tingly. He is singularly unique, with an unparalleled style. You simply cannot compare him to any other writer. Full stop.

 Slaughterhouse Five reads like science fiction that follows the protagonist Billy Pilgrim through WWII, traveling through time as he survives the Dresden bombing and becomes a prisoner of war. Vonnegut was also a prisoner of war and I am confident that through this writing, he was trying to come to terms with his own experience.

 The most notable aspect of this anti-war novel is the style in which it is written. From the beginning, the narrator warns that Pilgrim does not experience his life linearly, but discontinuously, traveling through his birth, death and everything in between in seemingly random order. Vonnegut even inserts himself in the novel in the form of his alter-ego, Kilgore Trout.

 Throughout Slaughterhouse Five, Vonnegut questions Christianity, through a clever device of a novel within a novel, attempting to answer, "...why Christians found it so easy to be cruel." This questions resonates with me profoundly as I have been attempting to answer the same question throughout my life. I have watched Christianity become politicized and becomes the religion of guns and anti-food stamp convictions. Pilgrim ultimately concludes that in order to bring charity and compassion back to Christianity, in a nutshell, we should all treat each other as Christ-like and as equal parts of God. 

 Vonnegut, in my humble opinion, is a genius.

 Ranked #18 in the Modern Library's 100 Best Novels.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

A Gentleman In Moscow

Image
A GENTLEMAN IN MOSCOW by Amor Towles   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2018, Goodreads Finalist 2016, Kirkus Finalist 2016   Date Read: February 24, 2017   From Kirkus Reviews:   “Sentenced to house arrest in Moscow's Metropol Hotel by a Bolshevik tribunal for writing a poem deemed to encourage revolt, Count Alexander Rostov nonetheless lives the fullest of lives, discovering the depths of his humanity.   Inside the elegant Metropol, located near the Kremlin and the Bolshoi, the Count slowly adjusts to circumstances as a "Former Person." He makes do with the attic room, to which he is banished after residing for years in a posh third-floor suite. A man of refined taste in wine, food, and literature, he strives to maintain a daily routine, exploring the nooks and crannies of the hotel, bonding with staff, accepting the advances of attractive women, and forming what proves to be a deeply meaningful relationship with a spirited young girl, Nina. "We are bound to find comfo
Read more

An Island

Image
AN ISLAND by Karen Jennings   Nomination: Booker Longlist 2021   Date Read: December 10, 2022   A short but mighty novel, An Island explores the concept of home, family, identity, the impact of political upheaval and the immigrant experience, when one’s suffering is so intense they move from one shitty country to the next. Samuel has finally found a peaceful home on an island somewhere off the coast of Africa. He was hired as a lighthouse keeper and after a tumultuous life, most of which was spent in prison as a political prisoner, he has carved out a life for himself on this island, enjoying a tranquil existence that basks in the quiet tasks of daily living.   Only after exploring Samuel’s life does the reader understand why such an isolated, spare and lonely existence satisfy him, with no desire to escape but only to grow deeper roots. His life witnessed the end of the British occupation, the installation of a brutal dictator and yet another dictator after the first was poisoned. Sam
Read more

The Changeling

Image
THE CHANGELING by Victor LaValle   Nominations: Dublin Longlist 2019, LA Times Finalist 2017, PEN/Jean Stein Finalist 2018   Date Read: July 21, 2024   From Kirkus Reviews: “A  tragedy thrusts a mourning father into peculiar, otherworldly corners of New York City. When Apollo and Emma have their baby, Brian, it feels like both reward and challenge for the new dad. Apollo, the son of a single mother, had been scraping by as a bookseller who hunts estate and garage sales for rare first editions, so even the unusual circumstance of Brian's birth (in a stalled subway train) seems like a blessing, as does the way Apollo stumbles across a first edition of  To Kill a Mockingbird  (inscribed by Harper Lee to Truman Capote, no less) shortly after. But after some young-parent squabbles and inexplicable images on their smartphones foreshadow trouble, the story turns nightmarish: Apollo finds himself tied up and beaten by Emma, then forced to listen to the sounds of Brian’s murder. LaValle has
Read more