As it goes in Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut, I have read this book, I am reading this book, and will read this book, all simultaneously. Slaughterhouse-Five is a unique work where, much like the literature of the aliens that abduct main character Billy Pilgrim, gains impact and momentum by moments that precede it. The impact is bolstered by crude moments and outright humor. The work is special.

Slaughterhouse-Five, in its simplest sense is a war story but none of the elements are traditional. There are no true characters in the book because war demands that there are no characters, this is a stark distinction from a traditional war novel wherein the are inflated characters in attempts to make light of war. There are other books that showcase the darkness and destruction of war but Slaughterhouse-five isn’t exactly that either. It is a fleeting work about fleeting lives of people and…