Slaughterhouse 5
On February 13th, 1945 British and US bombs fell on the non-military German city of Dresden, killing 130,000 people. Held in Dresden as a prisoner of war at the time of the bombings it took Kurt Vonnegut more than 20 year to write about the experience.
And write he did.Vonnegut’s indescribable writing style is in full display in Slaughterhouse 5: absurdism, black humour, memoir and science fiction are just a selection of the genres drawn upon. The bombing itself is barely mentioned, Vonnegut circles around the issue in a dizzying narrative that skips backwards and forwards in time, following the tale of Billy Pilgrim, who himself has come unstuck in time following his abduction by the philosophical aliens, the Tralfamadorians. From his night sessions at Optometric school, his service as a hapless foot soldier in World War Two, his containment as a specimen in a Tralfamadorian Zoo and his later attempts to live a semblance of a life, Billy Pilgrim’s story is at times hilarious, at times brutally raw.
Musing on mortality, war and massacre, Vonnegut suceeds in creating an anti-war novel that wears its message lightly. There are no heroes in Slaughterhouse 5 and there are certainly no glorious deaths. So it goes.
Find it: JB Morrell MB 83.9 VON
TEJA PISK
Mason and Dixon
Written by Thomas Pynchon, Mason and Dixon is a sprawling epic that charts vast continents, from Britain to South Africa to America, and recounts the story behind the two astronomer-surveyors that have been charged with the task of forming a boundary between Pennsylvania and Maryland. Written in the style customary to the time in which the book is set, it makes for a thoughtful read, and standing at over seven hundred pages, is probably for the committed reader. Yet it is utterly delightful, with great warmth and a sly wit that runs throughout the proceedings. It successfully humanises a fragment of history that risks being shelved as a stale encyclopaedia entry, drawing the reader in to clearly perceive what life could once have been like. There are brilliantly executed details that bring the story alive, such as when Mason is almost crushed at a cheese-rolling event, or when a valuable watch is eaten by a madman, or a mechanical duck comes to life and charges a chef with finding her lover… It is undeniable that it borders upon the edge of the fantastical, which some may disapprove of in a work of historical fiction, but here the ridiculous merges with the sublime to create a truly outstanding and rewarding piece of work that is well worth the effort of reading, even if you never reach the end.
JB Morrell MB 83.9 PYN
TABI JOY
Behind the Scenes at the Museum
Receiver of the Whitbread Book of the Year in 1998, Behind the Scenes at the Museum is the truly remarkable debut novel from Kate Atkinson.The narrative is placed in the hands of Ruby Lennox who, from the moment of her conception in 1951 acts as a curious omniscient narrator, documenting episodes from the lives of her forebears while remaining oblivious to the tragedy that has shaped her own life.
Spanning from the Victorian period to late 20th Century England, Ruby provides an evocative and thought provoking insight into the lives, loves and losses of four generations of women. Loss is a recurring theme throughout the novel, something one would expect from a narrative that covers events as the two World Wars. The gentle indifference of the narrator, however, lends the numerous deaths a tragi-comic element that adds to the overall emotional impact of the novel.
Behind the Scenes at the Museum is written in the present tense, an authorial touch that gives the assorted vignettes that make up the novel a peculiarly haunting power, a power that ensures the novel will stick with you for weeks to come.
Coming in at under 400 pages it is not too much of a commitment and is a book you can dip in and out of with ease – perfect for lazy summer days.
TEJA PISK