At last I finally have acquainted myself with one of Vonnegut's novels. I thought about starting my journey of his books with his earlier stories, until I came across an old Dell paperback edition of his most famous novel "Slaughterhouse Five" and that ended up being the first I read first.
The entire story revolves around Billy Pilgrim, an American veteran soldier who survived the Dresden firebombings during WW2, and his odyssey through time travel. Really trippy book, with Pilgrim constantly going forwards and backwards in time among other weird stuff, and also pretty hilarious. And since it was published in the late sixties it's a no brainer favorite for fans of New Wave SF.
Vonnegut wanted to write it as a autobiographical book about his experiences as a soldier in the second world war, but couldn't. Instead the only way he could write about was as a novel with some elements of Science Fiction (as Vonnegut himself started as a SF writer). And it works.
It's both simple and complex at the same time strangely enough as Pilgrim is jumping from one timeline and then into another one. But I love it! This is one of the best time travel (while at the same time also an anti-war) novel. There are still more Kurt Vonnegut that I need to explore, especially some of his earlier stuff from the fifties and his short stories. Still quite bit to read from this author!
submitted by /u/i-the-muso-1968[link] [comments]