Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
I'm not sure the best way to categorize this book. You could call it historical fiction as it is based on the firebombing of Dresden which is a major historical event. You could easily call this science fiction as it deals with aliens too. Either way, it's right up my alley.
This book is often categorized with anti war books including the likes of Catch-22 and All Quiet on the Western Front. These books are quite poignant in the current atmosphere with war in Ukraine and Israel. Both of today's conflicts have multiple parallels with the bombings in Germany during World War II.
Where I heard about it
During my college days I overheard a conversation between friends about this book that went completely over my head. It did sound like an interesting book. Several years later another friend of mine got a discussion going on Facebook and I decided that it was high time for me to read the book.
Slaughterhouse Five has been adapted to film and more recently a graphic novel. I pay attention to things adapted to graphic novel format because I want to encourage my children to read and the pictures are very important to them. I haven't read the graphic novel version, but I don't think this one is appropriate for my kids yet.
Here's a link if you would prefer the graphic novel
Plot
Billy Pilgrim becomes "unstuck in time" this book takes Billy through multiple events in World War II including the front lines during the Battle of the Bulge and the firebombing of Dresden from the vantage of Slaughterhouse Five where the American soldiers were held as prisoners of war. Billy is also held prisoner in a zoo exhibit on another planet where he is given a mate. The book goes on to explore what it's like for a war veteran to suffer PTSD and try to take on a job and a life back home.
Favorite part
I loved the part where he sees a movie about American bombers from World War II in reverse. "American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German fighter planes flew at them backwards, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. They did the same for wrecked American bombers on the ground, and those planes flew up backwards to join the formation.
The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers , and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans though and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France though, German fighters came up again, made everything and everybody as good as new.
When the bombers got back to their base, the steel cylinders were taken from the racks and shipped back to the United States of America, where factories were operating night and day, dismantling the cylinders, separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again."
Rating 4/5 stars
Some parts of this book are uncomfortable to read. The book is provocative in ways that really make you think about what war is. Sometimes it's better to laugh about things because it feels better than crying. I think this is an important book on a lot of levels.
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Lastly, I'm hoping that this book club will be interactive. I would love to hear your comments and considerations if you happen upon a review for something that you've read yourself. I'll try to do the same for you when I stumble onto a book review for something that I've already read.