Discount Slaughterhouse Five

"Billy Pilgrim has become unhinged in time." It's the classic line that starts off the classic story of what is considered to be Kurt Vonnegut's opus, Slaughterhouse Five. For those who didn't have to read this seminal tale in their college literature classes, Slaughterhouse Five is considered by many to be the ultimate anti-war satire, a story that scolds the meaning of all war (via examining the fire bombing of Dresden during WWII) through fairly anti-jingo themes and a bumbling optometrist (Billy Pilgrim) who claims to have learned the meaning (or rather, meaninglessness) of life from a troupe of extraterrestrials that locked him in an intergalactic zoo towards the end of his time-traveling adventures.

Re-reading that last sentence will give you a fair idea of the nature of Slaughterhouse Five: it conveys it's painfully serious message through absurd and hilarious means--a text-book technique in the world of satire and a more basic tenant of sarcasm. Slaughterhouse Five--which most likely gained much of its prominence as an anti-war tome released on the cusp of the Vietnam Era--offers the reader a narrative that periodically sets up check points that challenge the reader into looking beneath the surface of the prose and to figure out the inherent symbolism Vonnegut is trying so desperately to display. And on that level, the book succeeds. We're constantly introduced to a cadre of oddball avatars that could represent just about any solider involved in any war in a foreign land, and we immediately learn how they die before we learn how the war effected them, how they in turn effected the war, and the indelible mark they've left on the world by being just another individual in the never-ending line of individuals that make up human existence. It's in this message--that even the most random and common life matters, no matter how inconsequential and expendable it may seem--that the book soars. Unfortunately, it's in its relevance where the book sinks.

While the book is exceptionally well written, with Vonnegut providing innocent yet lush descriptions and verbiage, Slaughterhouse Five will easily collapse under its own "classic" status for some readers. Despite what the late Vonnegut (and, most likely, your college professor) probably wanted, this book won't resonate with everyone. There's the obvious risk that some just wont get the message of the book--whether it's the message conveyed above or another, maybe more personal, message entirely--and take it's lofty tale too seriously, while those who will get the subtext just won't care. However, that's the unfortunate price that comes from being considered a classic work of art. That said, the book is regarded as a classic for a reason, and active readers would be doing themselves a favor to find out why.

Michael P. Ferrari
Author, Assault on the SensesGet more detail about Slaughterhouse Five.