Book Review I: Slaughterhouse 5

Book Review I: Slaughterhouse-Five

:D I suppose my last post, "Omg Joseph Heller!" was more of a book review than a fruitcake rant, but then again, I felt my labeling justified because it was mostly me gushing about...well...being psychologically...er....manipulated....

....by an inanimate book...

Um, anyways, since I'm planning to do a lot more writing about books in the future, I figured I might as well create a new category: the book reviews. The issue is, often I analyze books from an intellectual perspective. When I write about it, especially in this blog, I would rather prefer to ramble and gush. So, as long as everyone is aware of the fact that, yes, most book reviews will really be book gushes, then I have no qualms about calling this a 'book review'.

Actual Book Review I: Slaughterhouse-Five!

Anyways, Slaughterhouse-Five. I liked it, a ton. It's postmodernist, so there is a limit to how much one can like it. I mean, after a while, the whole cynical apathy begins to wear on you. By the time I got to Catch-22 (by Heller, a contemporary of Vonnegut's) I began to feel a little fed up with these dumb postmodernists. Just my opinion. Still, all things considered, I found Slaughterhouse-Five, with it's time traveling (or rather, perspective traveling) Billy Pilgrim oddly gripping and satisfying.

The perspective shifting format, I believe, really makes this book cool. The sense of disjointedness lends much more to the diaspora (ok, I just misused that word...:P) of Pilgrim, and almost gives a poignancy to his life story that otherwise wouldn't have gotten across. Reading it made me really get that sense of disjointedness and passivity that characterizes Pilgrim.

That's the thing about Pilgrim-- I loved him, but my fellow AmLit-ers were pretty 'meh'. Well, actually, they mostly wanted to punch him. For some reason, I really liked Pilgrim though. His character doesn't seem annoying-- perhaps because I've read characters like him before, notably, Lathe of Heaven's George Orr. I liked Orr, too. :D See a trend? The passivity/apathy seems familiar. It's a pretty cool thing, too. Pilgrim becomes opinions, inactive, almost, he merely exists-- like George Orr! Milquetoast, Jellyfish! Like Orr, this guy was born for his role, the self-less (literally) time traveller, much like Orr was born for his role. Maybe Pilgrim represented the everyman simply because of his absence. Perhaps he was intended to give greater emphasis to the ridiculousness of life. He literally is that bird who witnesses the massacre and can't say anything but 'poo-tee-wheet'. Whatever. I don't have a good reason for why I like him, but I do.

On another note, what I didn't like was the Tralfamadoreans (No! I refuse to spell that correctly! It's a sign of hopeless geekdom if you know how to even pronounce it correctly). They were really random, very disjointed from the rest of the book. Perhaps they were intended to give greater relief on to the absurdity of life. Meh. Still didn't like them. I would postulate that Vonnegut was just throwing them in there to explain the whole 'unstuck in time' deal, but I think he's a much better writer than that. Despite their...well, the only way to describe it is randomness...I still wouldn't re-write the book without them if I could. It's a bit how I couldn't re-write Catch-22 without the intense pain. Somehow, without it, it wouldn't be the same. The book needs it, even though it generally detracts from the reading experience.

All in all, I would give Slaughterhouse-Five a double thumbs up, and definitely recommend reading it (unlike Catch-22. Yes. Read this, it's good). If you do plan on reading it, though, be sure to either pay really close attention to the beginning (where he's all like, "I'm going to write a war story!"), or re-read it when you get close to the end, because it is important, despite your misgivings, and it does get really cool near the end.

This is Quiet Girl, poo-tee-weet!

-Shhhh.....so it goes.