Slaughterhouse-Five (sp)

[snshne322]

I'm, um, really confused.  Am I supposed to be?

I listened to the Ethan Hawke version and when it finished, I had so many questions.   So I read the Wikipedia summary hoping to fill in some gaps, but there's stuff in that summary that I didn't get AT ALL from the narration.  So much so that I went to check and see if I got the abridged version accidentally. (I did not)  The trouble with this version is that there's a very long forward written by Vonnegut, but I didn't realize that for like 20 minutes (it was about 40 minutes long) and I think I was surprised when it ended because there was suddenly and interview with Vonnegut.  My brain had a tough time keep strait which was part of the book and which wasn't

I just tried to type that I thought I understood the themes, but as I was trying to explain myself, I got all tied in knots.  So maybe I don't really understand it all.  I get the Tralfamadorian concept of so it goes, but maybe that's all I get?

I missed entirely that he was killed in the end.  Or the beginning, or middle?  I knew he died in the seventies, but I missed that he was killed by Weary's friend.  I remember Weary dying in the train car, but I don't have any recollection of him telling Lazzaro it was all Billy's fault.

I didn't end up understanding the connection about being abducted by aliens.  I could almost comprehend getting unstuck in time and visiting different places in his life, but that was entirely unrelated to the aliens, right? 

I'm wondering if the Wikipedia article was a bit romanticized.  I didn't get any sort of warm and fuzzies from any of the characters, but I thought that was the point?  Humans are flawed, important/unimportant, die in tragic/un-tragic ways. Often unmemorable.

I just...I'm scratching my head.

[aurora]

I think I read this in high school but for the life of me I can't remember the details. So, maybe that means I was confused, too?

[rainbowchip]

I read this in HS and also again a few years ago and it didn't stick with me either time. All I know is that both times I did not enjoy it at all.