On Friday I got the approval to use the quote I wanted for my epigraph. It’s a line from Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.:
“And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep.”
I’m glad it came through. It took two months to get permission, and with the manuscript going to the printers in February it arrived just in time. I suppose it wouldn’t have been the end of the world had I not got it. But I’m happy it’ll be there – the cherry on the sundae.
I came to Slaughterhouse-Five late in life, after I began writing this book. It was recommended to me by a friend who saw parallels with what I was trying to do with my central story line. I had wanted my book to be nonlinear, to jump back and forth through time. Because that’s what happens when your heart breaks. You no longer live in the present.
Slaughterhouse-Five is unique and powerful. It poses some interesting questions about our perception of time and the nature of death. I’ve read it numerous times and my own dog-eared copy is filled with underlined passages that blew me away.
The quote I chose particularly resonates with me. This question that Billy Pilgrim poses is the same one Will wants answered too. What in this world can I consider my own? What do I not have to fear losing?