Author:	Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
Copyright:	1968
Date Reviewed:	4/29/84
Rating:	8.0

Synopsis: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time. For no apparent reason, he travels back and forth in his own life line. Although seeming to having nothing to do with his ability to time travel, this condition is explained to have been produced by the Tralfamadorians who have kidnapped him. Tralfamadorians are four dimensional beings that look like plungers in three dimensions. They perceive all of time at once. It's like seeing the entire Grand Canyon all at once rather that one ridge at a time.

Within a millisecond of his daughter's wedding, Billy is taken to a Tralfamadorian zoo were he spends years and fathers a child. Most of the story, however, is not about time travel or Tralfamadore but about the horrors of World War II and the bombing of Dresden towards the end of it. We may seem to be jumping back and forth in time but in actuality we are progressing forward slowly as Billy is stranded behind enemy lines, captured, becomes a prisoner of war, and goes to Dresden.

Review: It is difficult to review a book after having seen the movie based on that book so many times. There are many preconceived notions about what the book is supposed to be about; in this case those notions are simply wrong. From what I remember about the movie, which I haven't seen for a couple of years, it was about time travel and aliens. The book is about war and death. So it goes. The Tralfamadorians are simply a device to explain Billy's unusual flashbacks and flashforwards. Never the less, Slaughterhouse Five is a well written and engrossing book. I read it in one day and was never bored. Even though Billy is something of a silent wimp, I felt I could understand what it would be like to fill his shoes, or rather his worn clogs.