So after finishing Slaughter House-Five, I have to say I really enjoyed reading this book. There are so many reasons why I liked this book. I guess my first reason I liked this book was I guess the fluidity while reading it. At first I thought that I would be totally confused because of the science fiction aspect of time travel, however Vonnegut uses time travel to his advantage to jump from each part of the story that Vonnegut feels is related in some way.
I guess the aspect of time travel leads me to my second reason of why I enjoyed this book. I was surprised that an author would be able to make sense of a a historical sci-fi book. The introduction of the Tralfamadores brings up many points that I think Vonnegut wanted to share. "The Tralfamadorians...can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them." What I take from this is moments like death are just bad experiences and that there will always be war, we cant stop it.
I enjoyed how this is a anti-war story that does not really focus that much on the war. What we do see are the spilling of emotions as we see the wreckage of Dresden, the poor horse, and imagine the taste of syrup that brought so much joy to the old man. This small book contains so much information filled with so much knowledge and emotions. As my first time reading this book I definitely did not notice all of the finer points, however I definitely enjoyed reading this book.
I'm glad to hear you enjoyed it--for a novel with such a nightmarish topic, it is a surprisingly fun/funny read, and I worried that maybe we weren't appreciating some of the more hilarious/absurd moments in class. As far as being an antiwar novel that barely addresses the war, I'd say that everything in the novel has to do with the war, and that a big part of Vonnegut's theme is that the war never really ends, it's always still going on for Billy, and he could always be back there at any moment, with no warning. Even in his own home, surrounded by friends and family, celebrating his wedding anniversary, the most unlikely thing imaginable (a barbershop quarter) can spawn a flood of anguished memories.
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