High schoolers, as a general rule, don’t like reading. You could blame it on our busy schedules or on the tedium of studying Shakespeare, but the bottom line is the same–most kids haven’t enjoyed reading in quite a while.
I’m here today to present a balm for all the soreness academic reading has caused. A remedy that can be taken in the smallest doses, perfect for filling the little gaps of boredom you find throughout the day.
This cure is called “Slaughterhouse-Five,” written by Kurt Vonnegut in 1969.
The novel follows the life of Billy Pilgrim, a man who has become “unstuck in time.” Due to this fact, the novel bounces around the varied events of his life. In one page you may find Pilgrim in his office as he practices optometry, in a German POW camp, in a human zoo on a distant planet or aroused on a train. These moments in his life are told piece by piece, presented as small scenes as opposed to an overarching narrative.
While this may seem confusing at first, it is always easy to tell where Pilgrim is because of how different each setting is. The fractured structure is actually a perfect match for the hectic life of a high schooler. Picking up the book for even two minutes guarantees you a self-contained episode, one that can offer a joke or a nugget of wisdom that can teach you how to “ignore the awful times and focus on the good ones.”
Vonnegut’s prose is simple and witty. Every death in the novel is followed with the phrase, “So it goes,” which perfectly captures the ironic approach Vonnegut takes to even the darkest subject matter in the novel.
For those who enjoy digging into stories to try and find symbolic meaning or speculate on what’s “really going on,” this book has plenty to sink your teeth into. All of Vonnegut’s playing with time and aliens could be a metaphor about PTSD and the lengths veterans must go to cope with trauma.
For those who don’t enjoy any of that, everything can be taken and enjoyed at face value. The story of a man wandering through time and space, with enough war and sex to keep you entertained.
This book does it all, being a part of the literary canon as a sharp anti-war book while also offering low brow humor and dirty drawings, all in just 200 pages. Plus, you can impress all your friends by saying you read “Vonnegut,” the name is just so literary.
A copy can be found in East’s library, while three copies (along with a graphic novel version) can be found at the Chapel Hill Public Library. Online on platforms like AbeBooks it can be purchased for as low as $4.
Book cover courtesy of Archaia
