One of the great novels of all time. As Vonnegut himself graded it, A+! Hilarious and languishingly sad and insightful and smart and wild. Vonnegut was there in Dresden when the allies destroyed that once beautiful city, and he writes this autobiographical novel to reflect on that terrible time, laced with science fiction and acidic humor and a kind of fatalism (or is it mock-fatalism?).

So it goes, Vonnegut famously writes, as if things just happen. He was traumatized by the war, and suicidal at times ever since in spite of his hilarious novels, but like Joseph Heller's Catch 22, it is one of the great anti-war novels of all time. And it's black comedy, both of them!

One of the very best books ever from one of our greatest writers.

I read this book over 40 years ago, but I only just realized that Montana Wildhack, the porn star with whom Billy Pilgrim shares a cage in the zoo on Tralfamadore, is played in the movie version by Valerie Perrine, who was also Lex Luthor's girlfriend in Superman and saved the world by removing Christopher Reeve's Kryptonite necklace so he didn't drown in the swimming pool.

Busy, busy, busy.