Reviews

“How nice -- to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.”

The author was taken as prisioner of war and was in Dresden (Germany) when it was bombard. So it goes. Having failed to write a book on his war experiences - probably because of psychological stress involved in it ; he veils himself in character of Bill:

“Every so often, for no apparent reason, Billy Pilgrim would find himself weeping. Nobody ever caught Billy doing it, only the doctor knew. It was an extremely quiet thing Billy did and not very moist."

The transition from writer to character happens within the book and thus loosing the point where reality ends and fiction starts. This in fact, is beauty of book – it is not the best war novel, but it shows beautifully how easy it is for a disturbed person to lose her/himself into world of fiction.

When I saw aliens in it and easy, frequently funny narration - I start doubting the truth of Billy's war experiences as well but “All this happened, more or less.” The aliens are in fact are result of Billy's schizophrenia.

His sufferings, desire to escape and sexual desires combined to create a world of illusions, where he created for himself the answers to problems that tormented him in real life. (the sci-fiction he liked to read gave him material for same)

The so called time travel are the old memories that keep imposing themselves upon him. There is no escaping those old memories (which is veiled in forever existence of time): “All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist.”

The determinism, in above quote, which is just fancy word for fatalism, is a recurring theme in this book:

“Among the things Billy pilgrim could not change were the past, present, and future.”

“- Why me?
- That is a very Earthling question to ask, Mr. Pilgrim. Why you? Why us for that matter? Why anything? Because this moment simply is. Have you ever seen bugs trapped in amber?
- Yes.
- Well, here we are, Mr. Pilgrim, trapped in the amber of this moment. There is no why.”

When asked if he was happy in his prison in alien planet, he replied ‘about as happy as he was on Earth. Such fatalism stop him from taking any stand, through out the book Billy is like fish caught off water – just struggling to stay alive.

“One of main effect of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.”

And not to mention, Vonnegut’s usual satire on general stupidity of humanity (particularly war), his questioning of assumptions we hold (specially that seven parent thing) etc.

“Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops.”