Slaughterhouse V is a black comedy, science-fiction novel about Billy Pilgrim, a US army Veteran having served in World War 2 being thrown around in time.
Vonnegut’s writing style is second to none when it comes to convincingly mixing historical and purely fictional events and the occasional humor not palatable by everyone. Vonnegut often plays with death in his novel, which thematically fits the setting of the Aliens called Tralfamadorians. They are capable of perceiving four dimensions and for them past, present and future are one and the same. Logically death bears no weight to them. What struck me as particularly interesting was the extraterrestrial’s view on the biblical story of Christ:
“The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn’t look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe. Readers understood that, so, when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought, and Rosewater read out loud again: Oh, boy-they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch that time! And that thought had a brother: ‘There are right people to lynch.’ Who? People not well connected. So it goes.”
As so often Vonnegut uses the phrase “So it goes” to state things that seem unavoidable in life and morbid in nature.
The book often left me puzzled and inclined to think deeply about certain issues pertaining to society. I’d recommend it.