Slaughterhouse

I've heard about Vonnegut's writing for quite some time now, but as with many authors that are suggested to me, I never get around to actually reading about them because my memory sucks. Fortunately, Vonnegut's writing appeared not once, but twice on my booklist this year, although both times they were under the same book. When it was assigned in World Since, I read through it, but paid only just enough attention to write a quick response. Now, on my second time through, I've found that there are a lot of things I missed the first time around that have made this novel a ton of fun to read (so far, anyway).

Firstly, I actually read the title page and the little list of alternative titles, which adds a few new perceptions to the way Vonnegut wrote this and why he did so. I was also able to pick up on a lot more of his quirky and sometimes dark humor. I'm not sure if this is typical of Vonnegut's writing style or if he adopted this to fit his whole "wartime novel" attitude. Either way though, it's certainly very effective. He rarely, if ever, says an outright joke, yet I found myself laughing aloud at several points throughout the book. I can't place my finger on it--perhaps it's his descriptions, which are already comical to begin with, combined with his flat, matter-of-fact descriptions such as "He looked like a filthy flamingo" (42), "so the coat became a fur-collared vest" (115), and even the specificity of "446,120,000,000,000,000 miles away" (143) that causes all the hilarity.

Speaking of his matter-of-fact descriptions, I saw an interesting similarity between Vonnegut and Doctorow's writing styles: both authors tended to have little emotion during scenes describing the deaths of certain characters. This is especially apparent in Slaughterhouse Five with Vonnegut's "So it goes". The best part though, is how he still manages to capture your interest even though such an emotionally inanimate book would seem like a dull read.

Since a good portion of this novel revolves around Billy Pilgrim's time travelling experiences, it comes as no surprise that the book skips around a lot. Something similar occurred in Mumbo Jumbo, but instead of throwing me off and constantly confusing me (as Reed's book did), Vonnegut makes it work. I'm really liking this book so far!