Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Between February 13 and February 15 1945, during the course of four aerial raids, approximately 135,000 people were incinerated, crushed or asphyxiated in the fire-bombing of the German city of Dresden. The event continues to inspire strong emotions and opinions to this day.
Kurt Vonnegut writes in a thinly-veiled semi-autobiographical style, albeit in the third person. The protagonist of the novel is Billy Pilgrim, an infantryman from America’s heartland, who is captured by the Germans during the Battle of the Bulge. As a prisoner of war, he arrives in Dresden shortly before the destruction of the city begins. As the air raid sirens howl, he and his fellow prisoners are ushered into an underground meat-locker – Schlachthof Funf – the ‘Slaughterhouse Five’ of the title. Years later, as a successful optometrist in the Midwest, he suffers a nervous collapse as he watches a barbershop quartet sing. Their rounded open mouths remind him of the expressions on the faces of their German guards, as they emerged into the smoking ruins of Dresden on the morning after the raid.
If all this sounds like a very grim read, fear not. It is a book full of humour, although much of it quite black and sardonic it has to be said! There is a strong element of science fiction in the book. Billy is a fan of Kilgore Trout, an unsuccessful writer, whom he eventually meets. Trout’s alien race - the Tralfamadorians – are creatures who see all of time in one exquisite moment, and this gives Billy in some sense a way of coming to terms with his experiences.
The book was first published in 1969, but is still banned in some American schools, due to its critique of the American military and political system, and its perceived opposition to conventional Christianity. (It also contains some quite strong language!) In my opinion, a must read.
Submitted by Corwyn
