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What are readers saying about Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel?
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Keith posted a review at 2009-11-26 16:13:06.
(Language: English)
  
This is pretty good. Don't know why people keep calling it science fiction. Just because the guy thinks he keeps getting abducted by aliens doesn't make it science fiction. It just makes him crazy, and anybody who survives the fire-bombing of Dresden gets a free crazy pass.
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Leif posted a review at 2009-11-23 16:38:09.
(Language: English)
just 0,0001 points behind the Hitch
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David posted a review at 2009-11-18 08:44:16.
(Language: English)
One of my favorites
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A reader posted a review at 2009-11-14 00:39:20.
(Language: English)
I feel kind of like a jerk for not loving this book. There was nothing wrong it, and I see why it's endured despite losing some relevance, but I don't think it's going to stand out in my mind in the long run. The tone was very... American. And I don't quite know what I mean by that. Or maybe it's just that period of writing. When I was reading it, it didn't have the same voice as the 19th century novel or Can Lit. It's a nice change and it kind of made the reading go faster. I loved the thoughts on predestination and the aliens of Tralfamadore. The aptly named main character, Billy Pilgrim, lives his life according to the premise that there is no free will, sedately moving from one situation to another, passively accepting everything that happens to him. The repeated "So it goes" at every death further emphasizes the feel of helplessness that Pilgrim represents. He finds comfort in knowing that he can't change anything and as he skips through time he has the luxury (curse?) of knowing how things will unfold. On a larger scale, the Tralfamadorians say that Earth is the only place where people speak of free will. That war will always happen because it has always happened and will always happen and it's just better not to look at it. Pilgrim's fate is tied up with that of the universe. Like how the aliens know how the end of the universe will come about, Pilgrim, too, knows how he will die. Both calmly accept these endings without a thought of trying to change them, thus perpetuating cruelty and war on both their planets. This was my first Vonnegut novel and would have to say that it was just all right. It didn't blow my mind, but I did enjoy it. I would classify it much more part of the WWII genre - if there is such a thing - than science fiction, however. The scifi allowed for a novel way of exploring the themes, but the focus is primarily on the influence and impact of war. Of the great American classics, I think I have read only The Great Gatsby and Fahrenheit 451 and I feel like there's a large gap in my reading background because of it. It must just come from familiarity, but I have a harder time getting into the classics when they're American instead of English or even Canadian. I think, perhaps, I should start to remedy that.
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Vincent posted a review at 2009-11-13 09:40:18.
(Language: English)
Is it sci-fi? Is it satire? Vonnegut's unique story resonates as well with today's cases of PTSD in the Global War on Terror as it did back then.
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Mary posted a review at 2009-11-08 18:35:49.
(Language: English)
kinda confusing but definitely a fun read for U.S. history.
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Victoria posted a review at 2009-11-06 18:50:54.
(Language: English)
Everything Kurt Vonnegut wrote is seminal until he got to Breakfast of Champions and began to repeat himself.
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Larry posted a review at 2009-10-31 19:57:02.
(Language: English)
The Favorite of all my books. I First read it over 30 years ago and still read it at least once a year
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Mirek posted a review at 2009-10-25 17:54:23.
(Language: English)
Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse Five" is probably the best anti-war novel I ever read. Paradoxically, it is not openly or verbally pacifistic. Rather, by showing the absurdity of human condition in the war time, it builds in readers the strongest aversion to the war, to the artificial and often pompous "war heroism" we frequently witness in books and in media. "Slaughterhouse Five" is a surrealistic novel, sometimes skimming on the brink of science-fiction genre. The title refers to the real building of the Dresden Slaughterhouse where American's POWs were kept in the very end of the war when the famous Dresden bombing happened. It's subtitle, "The Children's Crusade" refers to the scene in the beginning of the book, where former II WW soldiers were called babies by the wife of war hero. In some sense the purpose of the subtitle is to despise the typical, pompous, heroic stories of the wars... The most of the narration is filled by the story of Billy Pilgrim, an American soldier, who is sent by Germans to Dresden, just before the bombing. Billy experiences a mental state called "unstickness of the time" - he visits his past, present and future out of sequence, sometimes in backward direction and often, repetitively. During his time travels, he claims to be kidnapped by aliens and kept as hostage and zoo exhibit on a planet called Tralfamadore. These parts of the plot seem to be quite strange, but when you immerse into the text deeply, they play some increadible role - far from typical sci-fi motives in other novels. In fact they have some philosophical implications. The questions of free will and of time and its meaning - are central to them. I like the concept of time and past looming from them - the past exists, is unchangable and can be visited in a way similar to that of our visits of places. The bombing of Dresden is described with scarce details. Aftermath of the bombing, with infamous "corpse mine", where one of characters dies from vomiting (caused by the stench), is probably the only more detailed part of the novel. The book is deeply related to the other Kurt's novels, "Mother Night" - the main character of the later plays an important episode in the former. Travelling in space and time with Billy we are faced with almost absolute absurdity of the war, the cold cruelty of men in the wartime, without calling these features by name. What makes this book special is peculiar climate it creates. In this very ambient, absurd atmosphere lies the strongest denial of wars and any warlike "culture". Once again I proved myself how great writer was Kurt Vonnegunt... Last but not least, I read the audio version of the book. The narration of famous Ethan Hawke was one of the best I ever experienced.
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