"All This Happened"...really?

This book, Slaughter House Five, is all about big impressions. First of all, it starts out, "All this happened, more or less" (1). Then it goes on to tell us about how a teapot-thief was actually shot, how there were threats of killings by hired gunmen, old war buddies, and how it would be a great idea to write a book about Dresden. Well, we are left in a whirlwind of confusion, trying to discern where this author is trying to lead us. He then introduces us to a song, which also leaves us wondering, is there any importance in this? Is he trying to give as a foreshadowing of some major event later on?
Reading on, I wondered what kind of person this author really was? He protrayed through his writing a crude and disgusting personality. Telling us of his drinking, and how he was a 'reporter' and what he would report. As he was taking us through his life story, I asked my self if this is what the book was about...his life.
Coming to a conclusion, I decided that the author was stuck on the idea of writing about the wierd, and horrible parts of life. Like how "the Germans had made soap and candles out of the fat of dead Jews" (4). Bracing myself for more disgusting details about World War II, I read on about his visit with his war buddy, and how the 'children's crusades' brings on another horiffic story from Germany and France.
Finally, the chapter ends abruptly after some more talk of massacres, and an interesting statement, that this book "is a failure" (8). Instead of writing 'would be' or 'is going to be', he writes it in the present, which somehow captivated my attention. It may be nothing, or it may be something, but he goes on to write that the book was written by a pillar of salt, leaving us wondering if that also bares some significance. Maybe is he trying to tell us that he is looking back, like Lot's wife, to something dreadful? Then, to top off our confused minds, he ends the chapter with a simple statement of how the book will end, with the words "Poo-tee-weet" (8).