Of the two Vonnegut books I’ve read, The Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse-Five, I have to give the nod to The Sirens of Titan as the better book for anyone to pick up and enjoy. Now with that said it is actually impossible to compare the two. So I won’t do that. However, I’d like to point out what makes each unique. The Sirens of Titan reads as a linear story where you even get a summary of what’s to come upfront in the form of a prophecy. Slaughterhouse-Five jumps around in the scattered mind of a POW and as you follow him into alien abduction a painfully human story emerges. You just have to work for it a bit more. But that’s also why Slaughterhouse-Five is one that is praised and so highly regarded and I agree with all of the love it gets. Most stories that define a generation make you work for it. The generation in question is of the World War II veterans who have to carry the weight of all of the atrocities faced when battling in European cities. Vonnegut’s way of writing, much like in The Sirens of Titan, distracts you from hearing the real message of BIlly Pilgrim’s story with the absurdity that is time travel and otherworldly beings until you reach the end and by then you can’t get the message out of your head. It is wonderful to experience. As you learn more about Tralfamadore and bounce from reality to reality you realize that the reality BIlly lost was in Dresden during the war. And so it goes…