I have been sitting here, looking at a blank computer screen for some time now, trying to work out what to say about Slaughterhouse 5, by Kurt Vonnegut. I am not sure where to start ... I think I need a bit more thinking time ... (some 15 minutes later) ... okay, here goes! This book is unlike anything I have ever read before. It may be relatively short, but it packs so much in that, like the central character of Billy Pilgrim, I found myself disorientated and not always 100% sure about where or indeed when I was. The author, who witnessed the horrific bombing of Dresden during the Second World War, and has taken that experience as his inspiration, using the life and times of Billy Pilgrim as his vessel. We travel with Billy through space and time, where he jumps between the key events in his life. This includes the time when, he believes, he was abducted by aliens who have subsequently instilled in him the philosophy that both time, and more importantly, death is irrelevant - if you existed at one point on the time line, then you will always exist, and death just happens to be a different point on that time line. So it goes. Billy can be on his honeymoon and in the blink of an eye, back in Dresden surrounded by his fellow prisoners, but already knowing what is going to happen to each and every one of them. Billy seems to take some kind of comfort in this heightened self-awareness, and tries to keep his focus on the good things he is, has, or will soon be experiencing - taking guidance from his alien abductors. The book is written in a short, clipped style - not dwelling for any length of time in one place or time. It tells the story of the Dresden bombing, but in short snippets. Is the author protecting us, or himself by using this technique? Could anyone tell, or hear, the full blown version in one uninterrupted sitting without falling into despair? Slowly, and surely, we go back to Dresden, but the horror is broken up by the other events from Billy's life, the banal, the joyful, the proud and the ludicrous moments too. Which of these events are fact, and which are just protective constructs of Billy's mind is not always easy to determine. It is a book that is hard to put down, but, at the same time, can be hard to pick up again. It's not always an easy read, with the style taking a bit of getting used to, but it is definitely worth the effort ... So it goes. So it goes. So it goes.
My STAR rating: FOUR.
Length: 192 print pages.
Price I paid: free, borrowed from local library as an ebook.
Formats available: print; unabridged audio CD; ebook.
No comments:
Post a Comment