ecmarshall

Reading a Vonnegut novel can feel like going without sleep. Both are disorienting and both can make you irritable. BUT...to judge Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut's style is to miss the point.

Vonnegut uses bizarre, childish devices to keep us from jumping ship. If it weren't so strange, would we be able to stomach instance after instance of cruelty, sadism and suffering? Vonnegut wants his reader to finish the book and realize that he or she hasn't done much better than pathetic Billy Pilgrim when it comes to standing up to evil.