Spent Day in Slaughter House with Vonnegut
April 22nd, 2006
Written By: Adam Sussman
This morning I woke up feeling a bit guilty about neglecting the books that have been piling up on my nightstand. So I decided to take the whole day off and only read.
I chose Slaughter-House-Five by Kurt Vonnegut and being this is the first Vonnegut book I have ever read I can see why he is such a respected writer.
A friend of mine gave me this book as a gift because over the past few years I had taken an interest in WWII and read “Rise and Fall of Third Reich”. In addition to this I had also become interest in Quantum Physics, String Theory and the ideas of multiple dimensions.
My friend knowing me so well said I must read Vonnegut’s Slaughter-House as it touches upon all these topics.
Vonnegut’s ability to share some of his experiences from being a German prisoner of war through the eyes of Billy Pilgrim and at the same time giving the reader a sense of Posttraumatic Stress Disorder through the use of time travel is remarkable. (I hope that’s the message)
On a more personal note, my grandfather was a young 20 year old tank commander for the British Army in North Africa before he was taken captive by the German Panzer division headed by Rommel and sentenced to 3 years as a Prisoner of War. These events were depicted in the opening scenes of the 1970’s movie ‘Patton’.
I honestly can’t comprehend how these young soldiers were able to survive those horrid conditions in the POW camps. I have so much respect for my grandfather’s generation. Touching upon this topic I have “The Greatest Generation” on my to-read list.
