So It Goes

So I just finished Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Wow! What a read! Short but powerful. For those who have not partaken it is the story of Billy Pilgrim, an unassuming everyman who becomes "unstuck" in time. Essentially he lives his life out of order, separated from the constraints of what we would call time. It is Vonnegut's attempt at an anti-war story. It definitely put forth some powerful antiwar imagery but I found, at least on my first read, that the real power was put behind some simple yet intense insights into our world.

One of my favorites:

"Trout, incidentally, had written a book about a money tree. It had twenty d0llar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer. So it goes."

Read that again. Maybe for a third time even. This book is filled with little snippets like this that just stopped me in my tracks. So many times I've been forced to read "literature" in class and made to dissect the imagery and meaningfulness of the prose. Yet Vonnegut continually packs all that needs to be said into just a few well chosen words.

So if you like science fiction, quirky stories, unconventional writing techniques or are just looking for something different, might I suggest a little Vonnegut for some weekend reading? YOu will not be disappointed.