The first time I read Slaughterhouse Five my reaction was "meh, that was odd."  But since then I somehow keep coming back to it.  I've read it four or five times now and everytime I can't quite decide what to make of it.  It fascinates me, but I have no idea why.  While I'm reading it my feelings about it never seem very strong one way or another but after I've finished I keep thinking about Billy Pilgrim for weeks.

I've never had a class or discussion about it, and I almost would prefer not to analyze it to death.  But I was wondering if anyone else here had read it and what your opinions might be?

I listened to the audio version for the first time a couple of years ago.  My reaction was bemused, amused and a bit confused.  I told myself I should go back and read the book in print someday -- but I've been too busy reading his other books to ever do so.  The majority of his work (at least the novels I've read so far) has very similar themes - the horror of war and what men do because of it, fate, free will, absurdity.

I've not read it in 25 years , but I seem to remember complex ideas exprerssed with amazing simplicity of language. Also, Billy was such an ordinary guy but extraordinary things happened to him anyway. I wonder how often is the case that extraordinary things happen to people all the time but they just regard them as ho-hum. Or people perform ordinary duties that anybody would just do but they think they deserve a medal and a statue in the park.

So it goes.