Slaughterhouse Five is arguably Kurt Vonnegut’s most famous novel. The first chapter is essentially a preface by the author talking about the genesis of the novel. Where many books and stories have been told about Pearl Harbor or D-Day or Hiroshima, less has been written about the firebombing of Dresden. Vonnegut had been a prison of war and kept in an underground slaughterhouse in Dresden during WWII. For this book, he has given Billy Pilgrim his WWII history and a science fiction future. It’s a book about war and life. “Listen: Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.”

Continue reading →