Kurt Vonnegut - Slaughterhouse Five
1969
Chaplain’s Assistant Billy Pilgrim, an ill-trained American soldier, is captured by the Germans during World War II. The Germans take Billy first to a POW camp and then on to Dresden, where he and his fellow prisoners are housed in Slaughterhouse Number 5 and put to work in the city. During the massive bombing attack on the city, the POWs and German guards hide in a deep cellar. They are some of the few survivors to survive the bombing. Billy is “unstuck in time” and experiences past and future events in a repetitive nature, out of sequence with his actual lifeline. He is kidnapped by aliens from Tralfamadore, who make him into a zoo exhibit, eventually accompanied by the B-movie starlet Montana Wildhack.
The Tralfamadorians, who can see in four dimensions, have already seen every instant of their lives. They believe in predestination. They say they cannot choose to change anything about their fates, but can choose to concentrate upon any moment in their lives, and Billy becomes convinced of the correctness of their theories. As Billy travels forward and backward in time, he relives occasions of his life, real and fantastic. He spends time on Tralfamadore, in Dresden, in the War, walking in deep snow before his German capture, in his mundane post-war married life in the U.S.A., and in the moment of his murder by Lazzaro. So it goes.
I think I might love Kurt Vonnegut’s writing. This was a great read. I never thought a WWII science fiction novel involving alien abduction could be so compelling, but it really was. He says a lot of things about fate versus free will through the Talfamdorians, who can see all of history and can only choose what to focus on. There’s a great reason that this book is considered one of the greats, and it certainly deserves the praise. I’m looking forward to reading my next Vonnegut.
