I believe that I’ll not take this book out of my Amazon.com cart, feeling that even though I’ve read a library copy, it is a book that wants re-reading some day. There’s more to be said about Vonnegut’s ability to pull an event burned into memory through twenty-three years of added experience along with the skill of his writing to present it in such form.
I’ve touched on this in mentioning, but the alien world of Trafalmadore is more than just an escape of dreams for Billy Pilgrim, as well as a vehicle of flashback for Vonnegut. It is posed as both an answer to the question of a new world society where mankind understands the uselessness of war, and as a statement that along with "So it goes," it is indeed alien to our nature perhaps.
There is much more as well to the introduction of religious belief and how as a people we were able to crucify Jesus Christ. This is so telling of both passion and apathy:
The Son of God was deader than a doornail.
There is the subtlety here that Billy Pilgrim is reading this in a book in a store that specializes in pornography. What is more immoral than causing the torture and death of any individual?
Yes, there is so much more to be read yet. Slaughterhouse-Five, for me, is not finished.
The Lost Children: A Charity Anthology