Slaughterhouse Five, Oh No!

I' sure i'm not the only one who thinks this but, the book and the movie were extemely hard to follow! Of, course the movie was better because it gave us a visual helping hand, yet it still did not help me understand what it the heck was going on! I think because Billy was always "time tripping" and it kept going from the past to the present to the future, it made it too complex to understand. The only thing that I did understand, and the book had made it clearer, is that Billy seemed like an extremely weak person. He had always let people take advantage of him and always seemed to be a reserved person. However, with Billy's possesion of characteristics like that, I really do not understand how he was so successful. Was it only because he married into a rich family? Another aspect of this story that confused me was the whole alien abduction. That part I could not even understand, and i'm still pretty much in the dark about it! It may sound like im dissing the novel and its movie, but I honestly could not grasp the concept of it. I think this was by far the most difficult story I have studied, but I am hoping that it will eventually clear up for me and any others that seem to be struggling as well.