Slaughterhouse 5.

God grant me the serenity
To accept the things I cannot change;
Courage to change the things I can;
And wisdom to know the difference.

This short prayer exists at the very start of the novel (in fact before the novel even starts) and I reckon sums up a lot of what happens quite neatly. The thing also holds a pretty sentiment so I think it's a neat way of starting a thing of my thoughts about the book.

The book is about a person Billy Pilgrim and his accounts leading up to and surrounding the bombing of Dresden during the second world war. From this summary it's not evident what the scope of the novel actually is. The book not only deals with events but also what appears to be how Pilgrim copes with the events of the second world war. The book starts off with Vonnegut disclosing how he got round to writing this book and the words he had with other people during its writing. The book then reaches chapter 2/3 and starts properly with the events in the life of Billy Pilgrim.

A brilliant thing about the book is how often real life (or is it?) smears into fiction (or does it?). Aspects of Pilgrim's life are given rational explanations in certain places, aspects of "Vonnegut's" life bleed into Pilgrim's life and the whole thing kept me hooked the whole time I was reading it.
The book is written in a breezy/washed over tone despite the obvious heaviness of the subject matter at hand, which gives the impression this is how Pilgrim copes with the trauma of the situations he finds himself in.

Essentially the work feels like a statement regarding inevitability. Early on the author's agent/publisher says that writing an anti-war book is as smart as writing an anti glacier book, citing the inevitability of each and how no person is going to meet with success any attempt to prevent either. The fact that Pilgrim's new adventures are the result of a series unlikely occurances (heck, his entire survival is an unlikely occurance) of which he has no control over further adds to the the argument that as individuals we have no real control over much really. Finally the point is most explicitly put by another character (at the very end of a chapter) suggesting explicitly that the notion of free will is a fairly uncommon view (this will make more sense on reading the book) and most people accept that free will is not real.

Flibbertigibbet

I dig this work man.

laters

K.

I liked this novel, but I'm reminded of these novels also worth a peek which strike me as having similar vibes:

Flatland
Lunar Park