Review: Slaughterhouse Five, kurt vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
My rating: 5 of 5 stars

This book is full of marvelous phrases. You could quote it forever. But the thing that stands out most of this quite-short book, is the voice of the narrator. Vonnegut shrewdly stands aside from the main narrative, even though ostensibly this is based on his experience of being a POW and the bombing of Dresden. But he just appears at the beginning and the end, kind of framing the narrative in which he uses an absurd character as his protagonist, only implying here and there that he, too, was standing next to him and living much of the same experiences.
The amazing thing is how he manages to make such an anti-war manifesto from a narrative that is so humane and touching, without feeling sorry for himself or pontifying. He uses the absurd to remark on the absurdity of it all, and focuses on both awful and beautiful moments to make it all the more poignant.
Another high point is his use of flashbacks and flashforwards as an actual plot point, making his character go back and forth in time, illuminating different aspects of his story so as not to focus solely on 'the bad parts'.
It's a solid, solid little book, one which leaves you thinking and feeling different while establishing a voice that makes it a very personal affair.

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