So it goes

Vonnegut has this sentimental, touching way of writing that always has me simultaneously missing childhood, and regretting the way I treat my parents (the sentiment of adults as children, to be simplified). It always makes me think what a nice person he must have been to have as a father. He seems very kind and sincere, and I wish that I could convey such emotions with as much eloquence as he can.

Slaughterhouse Five is brilliant in it's humanism. There were so many tender moments of human compassion within war. That they were conveyed through minimalistic sentences resulted in a profundity that I've never encountered; "The human beings also passed canteens, which guards would fill with water. When food came in, the human beings were quiet and trusting and beautiful. They shared."

and

"...He delivered himself to a barbed-wire fence which snagged him in a dozen places. Billy tried to back away from it, but the barbs wouldn't let go. So Billy did a silly little dance with the fence, taking a step this way, then that way, then returning to the beginning again.
A Russian, himself out in the night to take a leak, saw Billy dancing-from the other side of the fence. He came over to the curious scarecrow, tried to talk with it gently, asked it what country it was from. The scarecrow paid no attention, went on dancing. So the Russian undid the snags one by one, and the scarecrow danced off into the night again without a word of thanks.
 The Russian waved to him, and called after him in Russian, 'Good-bye'."

Anyway, the chronology of the time traveling events is superb. Vonnegut really understood the balance of weighty events with lighthearted ones, and expertly layered themes. The Tralfamadorians' concept of life is beautifully echoed in Billy's death in the middle of the book, and the last page is resonant of the war film that he watches backwards and forwards. After reading this, I don't know why Vonnegut considered God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater to be his best work...this one is leaps and bounds above that.
I'm glad that Rosewater made an appearance in Slaughterhouse, though. Nothing makes one smile like a cameo.