What I am reading

Slaughterhouse five is claimed to be the world's greatest antiwar book, dealing with the horrible firebombing of Dresden during World War II in which 135000 people were killed. So it goes, as Vonnegut would say.

So I was actually surprised to find out, that a great part of the book's plot does not take place during the war, some parts of it are not even set on earth. The amazing feature of Slaughterhouse five (for me, personally), are Vonneguts descriptions of his charater's future destinies or their acidental relationships to each other.

As soon, as a character is introduced, you get to know if, when, how and why he is going to die and if he's going to play an important role during the story. But amazingly, this does not take away any of the book's excitement. What I absolutely love about this book is the perception and description of the German, British, Polish and Austrian characters. Although they are all ment to be enemies to each other and, of course, to the American Protagonist, they are not depicted as cruel Monsters, but as individuals who just happen to find themselves standing on opposite sides during the war.

Very funny sometimes (this book is filled up to the top with black humor), horrible and unbelievable other times, Slaughterhouse five still is an amazing book to read. Sometimes the excessive jumping around in time was too much for me, so, after all, I rate it 4/5 stars.

So it goes.