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I liked the "so it goes" because of it's minimisation of death. The whole Tralfamadorean philosophy taken on by Billy seemed to be a way of coping with attrocity and death.
To me there was no question that the time travel was actually occurring. I took it completely as a delusion, a psychotic break.
I thought the novel was clever and well written. I agree that the author provided no characters with which you could draw any personal connection. But this was quite deliberate - even stated within the story itself. To me, this had the effect of again minimising what was happening to the characters (much like stating "so it goes" after every reference to death).
What BenG states about the structure is an astute observation. But what I find interesting is that the stated beauty of the Tralfamadorean is just not that beautiful. It still remained bleak, depressing. Even a Tralfamadorean point of view does not make the horror of war any prettier or more satisfying. To me, this is the point of the book. Despite all attempts to minimise, the reality can not be portrayed in a pleasing way.
Anyway - this is what I felt about the book. I could be completely off-base as I haven't read any critiques on it.
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