Is it necessary to use slander to great degree to get a point across?  This question races through my mind as I put up with the some of the vulgarities in this book.  I understand that emotion is difficult enough to capture on a page without censoring its outlet, but I am annoyed with the ways women are discussed so callously in this book.  As if women didn’t have enough hardship from the beginning of time as it were without this brilliant guy summing us up as the most derogatory creatures seventy times over and then some.  To add insult to injury, the book’s outcome is very existential and cowardly.  Maybe the protagonist isn’t supposed to be seen as a hero, in fact, I don’t think he is supposed to be seen as such.  The book is highlighting the meaninglessness and numbing pain experienced in World War II.  I guess its not a lot to ask of me to sit with it comfortably in my love seat.  Still, somehow, I have found growth and truth and goodness from better wellsprings and this girl is going to put the book down (I’d much rather side with the great C.S. Lewis and his masterpiece Mere Christianity which was written during the same war).  Hoping to have a meaningful discussion on a book about meaninglessness.