Slaughterhouse Five was on my “to read” list because of its acclaim, so for me it was medicine that I wanted to take. This was an uncomfortable novel, but certainly an important one, as Vonnegut painstakingly outlines his anti-war stance and the far-reaching consequences of war.
Billy Pilgrim is a reluctant participant in war and his experiences in Dresden are always with him. He suffers from post traumatic stress disorder, and spends his life “traveling in time” along his personal timeline due to his experiences with space aliens who have a non-linear approach to time. For them, what has happened has happened, and always will happen. This is a pretty hard novel to describe (especially when one’s brain is addled by jetlag) but is one that will stay with you, and provide many points to ponder.
I listened to this on audio, which helped me move along as it was pretty dense and hard to follow because of the time jumping. Eventually I got into the rhythm of it and was glad to have read it.
The time travel device was interesting: for me I likened it to reflecting on memories, or visiting old haunts. The process of reflection transports you back to that time and place, and to who you were then, and hence we are all time travelers once in a while.
