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Summary: MIND-BLOWING!!
Review: This was an amazing experience!! I read Sirens of Titan and wondered to my self what the hell this guy was doing writing an anti-war book. Then I realized it was more than that when I started reading it.. A LOT MORE!!!! The story was entertaining, surreal, sad, disturbing, and trippy all at once. I recommend it...reading this was an experience in and of itself! So it goes.
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Summary: Vonnegut is a rare gem, his words are a treasure.
Review: Books (and writers, for that matter) like this are few and far between. Never before have I been so totally compelled by a book that simultaneously made me laugh, cry and ponder at the world around me. Vonnegut easily balances between some dark humor and downright horrifying images with a style of storytelling so at ease with itself. He tells the story matter-of-factly and, perhaps my favorite part, treats the fact that Billy Pilgrim has become unstuck in time with such a "so it goes" matter that it's easy to gloss over the sheer absurdity of much of what happens. However, despite being downright strange in some places, Vonnegut also brings a very human element to the story by introducing (rather quickly) at times several characters that you either loved or hated. There is one part in the novel where I am saddened to such a point that I felt that this character was someone I had known at one time in my life. It is a rare and welcome surprise to be so easily manipulated by a book, espescially by one with so many meanings and so many great quotable lines! I strongly recoomend this book to those looking for a change of pace from the normal. For those of you with short attention spans, I also reccomend Vonnegut's Welcome to the Monkey House. These stories are treasure...
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Summary: This book has more truth in it than meets the eye.
Review: As a non-native teacher of English it is always difficult to decide which books the pupils have to read for the curriculum. I have been a teacher now for the last five years and needless to say every year Slaughterhouse Five has been the book my pupils have had to read? Why, simply because to me it is the best book to come out of the second World War. It has the grotesqueness of Kozinski's The Painted Bird and the way in which the narrative is conveyed is absolutely brilliant and the story never gets boring. Furthermore, the pages are filled with truth and makes the reader see the madness of destruction; of war. I recommend this book highly te every person on earth. I believe if everybody would read books like these the world would be a better place to live in.
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Summary: My all time favorite
Review: This book was awesome one of my all time favorites it was difficult to read but well worth while.
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Summary: message written, sent and received...well done Vonnegut
Review: ...a book that carries its own burden, it inspires thought on the negativity of humanity yet manages not to drag the reader into the slums of depression... it does this by providing Tralfamadore which acts as Billy Pilgrim's relief as well as the reader's. I recommend it hightly.
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Summary: ick.
Review: I don't like how Vonnegut down-plays death. What's the phrase? "and so it goes"? I also don't like how the author puts down morals and values. I don't care if Pilgrim has been through war, that doesn't give him an excuse to loose all human pride.
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Summary: This book moved me
Review: All I ask of a novel is that it take me somewhere I have never been before. This book did. I highly recommend it.
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Summary: Not Vonnegut's best, but still amazing
Review: While not Vonnegut's funniest, or even most poignant, "Slaughter House Five" points out the absurdity of war effectively. As everyone points out, it is similar in nature to Catch-22, but only in that it conveys its message in an unorthodoxed manner. To condemn this book because it's "Anti-war" is absolutely ridiculous. Vonnegut shows us that the bombing of millions of INNOCENT human beings is truely horrific and inexcusable. As the victors, we (Americans) tend to ignore the less than dubious actions taken by our side. Sure, right is served, but at what cost? Do we not become the same monsters which we are "valiantly" trying to defeat? Are the millions dead in Dresden and in Hiroshima no less innocent than the millions killed in concentration camps? That is the question Vonnegut wants to ask. Read it... it will make you laugh, it will make you sad, and more importantly, it will make you THINK.
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Summary: Vonnegut at his finest
Review: Vonngegut so vividly and beautifully describes the long term affects of war. Possibly the greatest anti-war novel ever written. Vonnegut shows his satirical skills to it's fullest throughout the novel and it really is a book worth reading for pleasure. If you enjoyed this novel i encourage you to read Cat's Cradle, in my opinion Vonnegut's best novel. Peace
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Summary: Before you take Rich's word for it...
Review: I was thumbing through the Modern Library panel's list of the 100 greatest novels of the century the other day. It starts with (of course) Joyce's *Ulysses* and contains mostly classics your high school English teacher had on his book list.*Slaughterhouse-Five* was #18. Since the Modern Library is filled mostly with pretentious jerks, this one surprised me. Vonnegut is post-modern, tinged with sci-fi, unpretentious, fairly easy to read, and funny. This isn't a knock at poor old James Joyce--I love him too--or the great literary classics of the world (I read more of them than I do Vonnegut novels), but you don't expect to see a writer as purely *fun* as Vonnegut in the top 20 novels of the 20th century. Maybe we should. This is the book most closely linked to Vonnegut's name, and it's definitely representative of his best work, if not the best of the best. It's not your typical literary classic and does have some fantastic elements to it, but judging by most of the reader comments below me, that's not a problem. And yes, it is anti-war, written by a veteran, and if you're a die-hard American patriot like our friend/reviewer Rich down there (what are you doing reading an author with a German name like Vonnegut anyway, flyboy?), then you'll not be happy. For you non-militants out there, it's hard to go wrong with Vonnegut, especially *Slaughterhouse-five.* Even if you can't see why it's on the top 20 list, it's still a fun ride. (The iron grip of Britian, Rich? Please.)
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