Review of Slaughterhouse-Five (1972) by Ian M — 17 Nov 2007

Our lives are a series of moments. Billy Pilgrim lives his moments at random, but gains solace from the knowledge that death and birth are just the frames, the edges of life; and that nothing could be so irrelevant to the reality of a life as death, which by definition is not part of that life.

Vonnegut seems both Nihilistic and deeply humanist. One of the great masters of black humour, he is deeply (and hilariously) cynical; but at the same time seriously angry about war and cruelty, and yet still at the same time seems to believe in our ability to transcend all horrors, to make the best of the few moments we all have here together.