5/10I just finished this book on Sunday and thought that it was ok. It wasn't as funny as I was hoping for. I was hoping for a "Catch-22" or "The Catcher in the Rye" type of funny. It had its moments, but nothing too spectacular for me.
I think my favorite part of the book was the first chapter and the very last page. The first chapter is this interesting little intro type deal where he is explaining how he wants to write this book about Dresden and this discussion he had with an army buddy and the army buddy's wife and it pretty much reveals what the book is going to cover and gives away the end. I thought it was a funny and creative little opener.
The book is bizarre to say the least, but that is what I was expecting and what I signed up for when I selected this book off the shelf. It is about this guy named Billy Pilgrim who is entirely unfit for army duty and is this quiet, unique type that doesn't say much. Oh, and he is a time traveler who re-lives moments of his life past and present, and often travels back to this planet Tralfamadore where he was abducted by aliens. The title of the book comes from the number of the slaughterhouse where Billy and other POW's are kept in Dresden near the end of the war. The funniest part of the book is at the very end (obvious spoiler alert) where the entire city of Dresden is destroyed. This guy named Edgar Derby is one of the few survivors and one of the POW's in Dresden and he gets arrested for taking this teapot that was among the rubble and he is executed by firing squad. Ha ha. The whole underlying theme throughout the book was an anti-war one and how illogical it all is.
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