Slaughterhouse Five. Kurt Vonnegut. 1999. 275 Pages. (Paperback.).

This is Vonnegut’s most famous novel. The title seems to be loosely based on the Dresden German prisoner of war camp, before Dresden was almost obliterated by Allied bombing. It is a very antiwar tale with the main character, Billy Pilgrim alternating between being the rich American optometrist in Vermont and flashbacks to WWII prisoner of war experiences, with hallucinations of capture by Thalfamadore extraterrestrials, trillions of miles from earth, where space and time dissolve into an amorphous unity and war is unheard of. There are seven genders in Thalmadore, all required to reproduce an individual.

There is a lot of foul language, and a lot of death and carnage. There is even an attempt by a beautiful female earthling to have sex with a Shetland pony. One must admire the author’s imagination.

Even though science fiction is not my favourite genre, I quite enjoyed this old classic. But I will not venture into any other Vonnegut books.

“And so it goes.”

4/5

Thanks, Lois

This is Vonnegut’s most famous novel. The title seems to be loosely based on the Dresden German prisoner of war camp, before Dresden was almost obliterated by Allied bombing. It is a very antiwar tale with the main character, Billy Pilgrim alternating between being the rich American optometrist in Vermont and flashbacks to WWII prisoner of war experiences, with hallucinations of capture by Thalfamadore extraterrestrials, trillions of miles from earth, where space and time dissolve into an amorphous unity and war is unheard of. There are seven genders in Thalmadore, all required to reproduce an individual.

There is a lot of foul language, and a lot of death and carnage. There is even an attempt by a beautiful female earthling to have sex with a Shetland pony. One must admire the author’s imagination.

Even though science fiction is not my favourite genre, I quite enjoyed this old classic. But I will not venture into any other Vonnegut books.

“And so it goes.”

4/5

Thanks, Lois