It seems that Mr. Vonnegut never really overcame that writer's block he discusses in the introduction. In fact, I found his description of the writer's block - and the introduction itself - much mroe interesting in the actual story. The reason for this is because in the introduction, Vonnegut takes time to explain who he is and why he is the way he is, and he actually takes time to get you to like him. As you read about his struggle to churn out a novel about Dresden, you feel compassion and hope that he can do it. Once he actually writes the novel however, you find that you really wish he hadn't. 
 Billy Pilgrim seems to be the exact opposite of Vonnegut. When Vonnegut meets his friend's wife, he is at first genuinely confused at her anger and expresses his confusion to the reader. Then, when he comes to understand what The Wife really has against him, Vonnegut suddenly understands and seeks to console Wife, and the reader wants to back him up. It's this sort of connection with the character that I longed to have with Billy. I never got that connection. Billy is detached from the people he holds dearest in his life while Vonnegut reaches out to contact even people that are in the distant past. Pilgrim lives in a perpetual state of apathy while Vonnegut seeks to understand the world, the people in it, and his place. 
 Pilgrim's aloofness from life is obvious from the beginning, when he sells out Roland Weary, his fellow soldier, to some Germans who turned out to hardly even be soldiers at all. One could blame this situation on Weary's cruelty, but when Billy views his death on the train as he does everything else in his life, it seems to the reader that Billy is a very cold-hearted man indeed. Forget his fatalistic attitude, a person should care about another person.