Slaughterhouse-Five

I first read Slaughterhouse-Five years and years ago and saw the film made in the early 1970s and remember it for its frantically disjointed narrative and for the harrowing episodes set in World War II Germany. This graphical novel treatment is a beautiful work of a story with many hideous elements. It is often described as an anti-war novel, which it is, but what it really feels like is a novel that is existential at its core, the story of a life with the absurd elements turned all the way up. There are science fictional elements to the tale (the time travel, the aliens, and the story interludes by Kilgore Trout) but I don't feel like this is really the defining feature. The main character is able to experience the totality of his life the same way the reader does, as a connected totality between two covers, and when he fully accepts this and tries telling people about it, most of them assume he is insane. But after what he's been through, how could he keep from losing his mind?

There is a splendid interplay here between the way the story is paced and the drawings accompanying it that no other medium can achieve. Not every detail from the novel makes it into this version, but the ones that do pack an extra punch. The most disturbing events are portrayed in a way that isn't lurid but still find a way to be deeply affecting. As I read it, I could see how it was accomplished, but still I had to marvel at how it all worked.

I don't think a reader would have to have read the original novel to get what this book is about, though I would hope that they feel like they would want to afterwards. I think other books by Vonnegut could be given a new life in this format, such as Cat's Cradle and The Sirens of Titan, if a team could take them on as passion projects. None of these seem likely to appeal to the public enough to become a runaway bestseller, but I like to imagine that such re-imaginings of those masterworks could exert an outsized influence on a new generation of fans.

My first read (although I expect not the last) of Kurt Vonnegut’s sci-fi classic has me blown away by how smoothly Vonnegut was able to integrate aliens and the horrors of WW2. I was lucky enough to snag an advanced copy of the upcoming graphic novel adaptation. Without being able to compare it to the original format, I found the graphic novel to be an incredible way to represent the story as it made time and space jumps easy to follow. The use of colour and illustration were also a fantastic addition.

Slaughterhouse-Five follows Billy Pilgrim, an American soldier who is captured towards the end of WW2 by German soldiers. Throughout the book Billy becomes “unstuck in time” as we learn that Billy is captured by an alien race called the Tralfamadorians who teach him a different way to perceive time. This use of time travel and discussion of memory throughout the novel enables the non-chronological narrative of the text to show both significant events and their implications. One of the most significant events in Billy’s life, and a focal point of the novel, is the Bombing of Dresden.

Going into Slaughterhouse-Five I was already well acquainted with the bombing and I’ve been lucky enough to visit Dresden (Germany). The city has since been reconstructed, though not without scars. If you have no idea what I’m talking about: in short, Britain and the U.S. firebombed Dresden such that an estimated 25 000 people were killed despite there being no significant military presence or significance to the city. The usual explanation for this is that the attack was in retaliation to the Coventry Blitz. I’d highly recommend reading up on it a bit before reading, but it certainly isn’t necessary to gauge the horror of the attack.

Despite its serious and horrific exploration of war, I also found myself smiling and laughing at other events in the novel. And I can’t say that I’ve read anything quite like it. There are clear anti-War themes throughout the text as Billy must constantly deal with the deaths of those around him as well as the bombing itself. The philosophy of the aliens which capture Billy adds some hope to the text as their view of time allows the good to exist alongside the bad.

Slaughterhouse-Five deserves its status as a modern classic.