Abstract
In the first chapter of his cult classic Slaughterhouse-Five or The Children’s Crusade (1969), Kurt Vonnegut explains why it took him two decades to articulate his World War II experience:
And somewhere in there a nice man named Seymour Lawrence gave me a three-book contract, and I said, “O.K., the first of the three will be my famous book about Dresden.” … It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. (18–19)
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© 2009 David Simmons
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Abele, E. (2009). The Journey Home in Kurt Vonnegut’s World War II Novels. In: Simmons, D. (eds) New Critical Essays on Kurt Vonnegut. American Literature Readings in the 21st Century. Palgrave Macmillan, New York. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230100817_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230100817_5
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