Slaughterhouse 5

I read this book soon after reading Mother Night; I was curious since I knew that Campbell, the main character of Mother Night made a “cameo” in Slaughterhouse-Five.

This has other similarities, it is about WWII, it uses dark humor, there is a narrator telling a story-within-a-story and the narrative shifts around in time.

The time shifts are connected to the story here because the mind of the main character, Billy Pilgrim, moves in and out of different points in his life. He believes he was captured by aliens who taught him that time doesn't happen in any particular order. Everything happens all at once and is predestined. He'll be in WWII and suddenly shift to his wedding night, or to working with a patient as an optometrist, or to being an exhibit in the alien zoo, etc.

I'm suggesting “he believes” because my thoughts during reading this were that the reader is not meant to take this as part of the reality of the book; it's not science fiction. Instead, the alien abduction is part of his way of escaping the horrors of his life, particularly being a POW and surviving the bombing of Dresden. I could be dead wrong about this; maybe we are meant to think he was captured by aliens.

But take the bits when he's in the alien zoo, Billy's mating partner is a sexy movie star, Montana Wildhack. This indicates to me that it's a fantasy created in Billy's mind, otherwise, why wouldn't it be just any average woman, someone equal to Billy himself in looks and fame.

The other effect of Billy's alien adventure is that he is convinced there is no such thing as free will. If all events are happening at once then they will always happen; there was really no choice to be made. This fits in with Billy's general passivity during the course of his own life. The only time he seems to make a decision in the book is when he searches for a television station (but finds a radio station) to get his story on the air. He doesn't have to take responsibility for things that happen to him.

Another concept that both Slaughterhouse-Five and Mother Night explored is that in warfare, both sides are human. Germans were people too, or whoever is the “enemy” in any given war. The citizens of Dresden are all killed and it's just as horrifying as when any Allied cities were bombed. It's not a totally original thought but I like the way it's handled by Vonnegut.

Final thoughts: Slaughterhouse-Five was an interesting tale full of many ideas to ponder, but it didn't move me quite as much as Mother Night did. As always, I appreciate Vonnegut's high degree of readability and ability to get across meaning without getting preachy. This is a skill that's missing for many writers these days.