Slaughterhouse-Five

Rating:
Summary: Not Your Traditional War Novel
Review: Reading Slaughter-house Five is nothing less than an adventure. I've read many anti-war books and was expecting much of the same qualities in this one, but I was certainly in for a surprise. Told through the eyes of a man who is completely unhinged from reality, this book - which is based around the bombing of Dresden - is full of symbolism and interesting ideas.

Billy Pilgrim is an optometrist. He is the son of an optometrist and is married to the daughter of an optometrist. He believes that he was once kidnapped by aliens and brought to their planet where he was put in a zoo and given a famous actress to mate with. He believes he can travel through time to any moment of his life and that Adam and Eve can be seen in a pair of leather boots. And he is a soldier in World War Two. By living in a world which is so constantly unreal, Billy seems to perceive what is real (i.e. the horrible war which he is fighting in) to be fiction. Because he believes that all moments of time coexist at once, death does not affect him. Whether a bottle of champagne goes dead or a friend is killed by firing squad, his reaction in the same: "So it goes." As Billy drifts in and out from the real and the unreal, we can begin to understand the relationships between the everyday occurances of our lives and the extraordinary circumstances of a horrible war.

Rating:
Summary: My first Vonnegut
Review: Slaughterhouse Five has been my frist experience reading Kurt Vonnegut and fortunently it was a pleasent one. I chose to read Slaughterhouse Five for an assignment in my English III AP class and was not looking foward to it. However, I decided to give the book a chance so I read some of its reviews (another positive experience), after the reviews I read a summary of the book (this was a somewhat less positive experience). The summary told of a soldier who comes back from World War Two and is abducted by space aliens. Upon reading this I had to laugh, as my teacher expressly told us that this book was one of the best ever written. Again to be fair, I bought the book and began reading (I allowed myself ample time - I wasn't planning on enjoying it) andc finished four hours later. I was expecting to take at least a few days, but once I started, I couldn't stop! Vonnegut's writing style and structure is very similar to another fantastic sci-fi writer, Douglas Adams. Slaughterhouse Five reminded me very much of Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy. Both Vonnegut and Adams use similar humor and have habits of repeating phrases (So it goes). An overall great book, I highly reccomend that everybody read it.

Rating:
Summary: A Wonderful Absurdity
Review: This book is as fascinating as it is strange. It takes an important and normal concept like W.W.II, and through narration, repetition, and dark humor, turns it into a strong political statement before you realize what it is really saying.
Vonnegut writes this so that it is easy to read and it moves quickly. When he talks about violence or death, he points it out so blatantly and casually that it is disguised, and the reader quickly passes over it.
It is very serious and well thought out, despite its casual narration and humor. Kurt Vonnegut uses strange ideas like aliens to help paint a clear picture of the main character Billy Pilgrim's life, and provide a way to break up the war story and the horror of the Dresden bombing with other information.
The alien concept of time is also very interesting and provides something to think about for quite some time after reading the novel.

Rating:
Summary: Essential in many ways
Review: This novel is essential in many ways. It is undoubtedly one of the best-written, most well respected novels of the 20th century (No. 6 on the list that was a compilation of all the other lists) and is, therefore, essential to your understanding of 20th century fiction. If you have never read Vonnegut, this book should be the first one you read: it is the most famous and one of the best and really captures the essence of Vonnegut. Finally, despite its literary merit, this is a FUN book to read. You will laugh, you will think, but, most of all, you will enjoy reading it and you will finish it FAST.

This should be your introduction to Vonnegut. I've found that true Vonnegut fans don't often choose Slaughterhouse-Five as their favorite, but, instead choose one of Vonnegut's other wonders (Breakfast of Champions, Cat's Cradle, Sirens of Titan, etc.). I think that most would agree that this is a good jumping off point, just as, in music, people often start with Greatest hits albums and then work from there.

Only Vonnegut could make such a strange premise believable and emotional. The book shifts time and place from paragraph to paragraph without warning. It is about aliens and WWII. It all works so perfectly, however and is so profound to those who read carefully. Billy Pilgrim is one of the great characters in all of literature.

Don't be scared off by aliens and the weird premise. It works better than 99% of so-called "normal" books. Absolutely ESSENTIAL.

thanks {{{milo}}}

Rating:
Summary: Anti-war novel w/twisted time concept (SLV) ;)
Review: "Slaughterhouse Five" is a work of literary fiction that combines historical, psychological, sociological, and science fiction elements. Unlike your everyday novel, Vonnegut does not express a clear plot, conflict, or climax, instead he offers us a multi-dimensional view of fantasy and reality. Slaughterhouse Five grew out of Vonnegut's own personal experiences during W.W.II, particularly the horrors of the Dresden air raids. Everything Vonegut writes related to the bombing of Dresden is meant to be felt as senseless to the reader. The story is mostly seen through the eyes of the main character Billy Pilgrim, a tall, skinny, sort of senseless man. He becomes "unstuck" in time and travels to different places and times during his life. An interesting yet somewhat confusing element in the story is Vonnegut's use of alien beings called Tralfamadorians to install his multi-dimensional concept of time. Billy is kidnapped by the Tralfamadorians and kept on their spacecraft. There he learns the Tralfamadorian concepts of time, predestination, and the absurdities of the human world. Vonnegut, also present in the novel, includes a telegraphic narrative explaining who he is and where he has been. Vonnegut displays many horrific events constituted with death by means of black humor. When a person dies the term "so it goes" immediately follows as if death were just some careless event. His use of black humor is meant to make the readers laugh in situations of absolute tragedy, such as death. If you're interested in warped SCI-FI with a bit of humor mixed with some hard-rock reality that reads smoothly, I would suggest "Slaughterhouse Five" as an excellent novel in its class. Slaughterhouse Five broadened my perspective of time and whether or not predestination exists. Vonnegut, through "Slaughterhouse Five", opens the reader's mind to his own a different, twisted, world of interesting thought, concepts, and experiences.

Rating:
Summary: My new favorite
Review: The novel Slaughter House Five is a great story. It describes Billy Pilgrim's time travel and adventures throughout the whole book. The writer kept me going and I could not put this book down. It is definitely a reread and I look forward to reading more of Kurt Vonnegut's writing pieces. Though, the reason I am giving this a four star, is because of the introduction. The introduction did not have a good foundation, and lacked interest, though I enjoy Kurt Vonnegut's honest style of writing and I look forward to the next Vonnegut novel I will read.

Rating:
Summary: sci-fi indictment of WWII, through a crazy man
Review: This is an absolutely wonderful sci-fi novel with a lot of heart. It follows the life - real and perhaps often imagined - of Billy Pilgrim as he moves about in time, remembering painful moments of his life as an outsider. He witnesses WWII, but not as a hero; then he is a successful businessman, watching life pass him by, until he becomes a kind of profit. Interestingly, tho the march of time has overtaken the scope of his narrative - he predicted that the US would be broken up, that Chicago wd be blown up by "angry Chinamen" - it is still entirely believable.

The result is moving, funny, and very vivid. Warmly recommended. It can be read over and over, as I have for 32 years.

Rating:
Summary: The Childrens Crusade
Review: In a time where war is no stranger to anyone, this book gives an honest and hard look at the effects of war on life. I could not put this book down. Although this is my first Vonnegut book that I have read, his ability to mix humor with tragedy in a smooth and natural way displays his brilliance. I highly recommend this book to anyone seeking to expand their literary horizon.

Rating:
Summary: An amazing work
Review: Slaughter House-Five is a captivating novel of Billy Pilgrim and the jounrey through his life. One of Kurt Vonnegut's best works. He combines humor, science fiction, and one of the world's greatest anti- war books in to one. When Billy Pilgrim, a weak and mostley quiet man, becomes "unkstuck" in time after being captured by aleins, you travel through his life. From his terrible World War II experience (inspired by Vonnegut's own war experience), including the tragic bombing of Dresden to the planet of Tralfamadore where Billy and the reader are introduced to a whole new concept of time and death. The reader journeys simultaneously through all phases of Billy's life which is centered on the war and the effects of the war. Constently the reader is torn between reality and fantasy and questions the sanity of Billy Pilgrim. This is a complex novel , basically without following a story line or a conventioal flow of characters. Through out this book Vonnegut makes you laugh, cry, and most importantly think. By the end of the novel the reader is captivavted and stunned by the brutality and horrors of war and questions our own fractured society. Slaughter House-Five is one of the best peices of American literature and I recomend it to anyone.

Rating:
Summary: Not a bad one in the bunch
Review: Vonnegut didn't write a single novel that was a flop--all are good, nay, great, and "Slaughter House Five" tops the list of his achievements. So many authors owe a debt of gratitude to Vonnegut for his insight, humor, and style: David Sedaris, I think, was probably influenced by Vonnegut, as were Jackson McCrae with his "Bark of the Dogwood," Pynchon ("Gravity's Rainbow") and most certainly, Tom Robbins with "Even Cowgirls get the Blues." All these authors have something in common with Vonnegut, but what makes the master so different is his insane sense of timing and his ability to convince us that HE really believes in what is happening, therefore, so should we. The main character of Billy Pilgrim is like only a handful of other characters created over the past hunderd years (Ignatius in "Confederacy of Dunces" or Strekfus Ovid Beltzenschmidt in "Bark of the Dogwood") in that he is so bizarre, so "off the beaten path," yet so "real" that we fall in love with him (or at least watching him) and want to follow him through this bizarre and complicated journey that is "Slaughter House Five."

Years ago, this book was banned by many libraries and schools. I find it interesting as well as refreshing that many teachers are recommending this great work of fiction to their students. Perhaps Vonnegut really has made a difference in the world--let's hope so.