Rating: 
Summary: A Lesson Learned
Review: Looking beyond the otherworldly time travel subplot, it is not difficult to see that this novel is an antiwar statement. A story about one man who finds himself trapped in a place he does not want to be which results in his unwillingness to cooperate with a society that refuses to get along with itself. Ironically, he is one of the few to emerge from the war alive and unharmed, while the noble, hardworking, and dedicated fall from all around him. So it goes.
Obviously, the bombing of Dresden was a mistake. Because of this, it has quietly faded away and been forgotten. Almost. I had never heard of a city known as “Dresden.†Up until the last pages of the novel, I thought the place was fictitious. Humanity simply wasn’t capable of such a hideous feat. Indeed, I was partly right, but no matter how you look at it, the events did happen. So am I missing something? If thousands of people died that day (so it goes), why don’t I have the name “Dresden†burned into my brain. Perhaps society as a whole does not wish to familiarize itself with all of the inhuman details of it’s ugly past. On a personal note, I believe the knowledge of these occurrences (surely Dresden is not the only one) can give us a chance to reflect on our mistakes and take steps to ensure that at least we, as a whole, have learned our lesson. I believe this is what the piece is trying to say. The bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki was a terrible event, but it happened for a reason that, over the years, has been more or less justified: it stopped a war. Did destroying the city of Dresden accomplish that? Of course not. It accomplished nothing. And yet it is rumored more people died that day than the days of Hiroshima and Nagasaki combined. So it goes. Not many people wish to know that. But Vonnegut cares not. He only wants to get the message across. And he does an excellent job.
Rating:
Summary: Heavy Philosophical Meaning, Entertaining Reading
Review: Ah, a Classic, in all literary senses of the term. Highly sophisticated thinking turned very entertaing novel. From start to finish this book had me entranced. The heavy philosophical and physical conundrums are uniquely paralleled by the comical and satirical. Innovative in its writing, Vonnegut brings to you a hearty helping of shear genius. Highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: Wild and Absurd.
Review: This is one of my favorite Vonnegut books. In the book, the author describes aspects of World War II in a surrealistic way. Billy Pilgrim, the main character, maintains a fluid relationship with time. Read the book to get your mind all scrambled and learn about non-traditional views of time.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent book that doesn't support warfare
Review: This book is mostly inspire by Vonnegut himself and his experiences in Dresden in the 1940s. The bombing, the friends he lost, the confusion and mental turmoil he experienced after the war.. the whole book was very crystal clear. It's very personal and moving for a story written in the third person. It was unusual for Vonnegut to do that because most of his books I have read were written in the first person. Billy Pilgrim's transition from reality to imagination are very adequate and plausible, and gave a very real, yet isolated take of life during such a terrible war. It also documents the dehumanization of the atrocities of war, since death doesn't seem to have an effect on Pilgrim, but you can tell that he does have feelings, but the war kind of took away all the feelings that really mattered to him. I've always been a pacifist and had a strong anti-military stance, but this only enhances my perspective. Most war novels and movies usually glorify the fighting the the atrocities done to both soldiers and civilians, only adding to the concept of dehumanization, but the sensitivity of its characters, especially Pilgrim, the protagonist (though not lucid, but still evident) makes it a very different military novel from a very different writer.
Rating:
Summary: Brilliant and Original
Review: This has got to be one of the most original books ever written, and I would highly recommend it to anyone open minded enough to enjoy it. I don't have to summerize it, as many others have done so, so I'll just skip to what I have to say. This book is one of the only books I've read that completely lets the reader deside what this book means to him/herself. There's also plenty of praise out there, so I'll shoot down some of the odvious misconceptions some of these other reviewers have about the book. This book is not ment to be a character study. It doesn't try to be, and it shouldn't be judged as one. The characters are pawns that Mister Vonnegut uses to tell us what we need to hear. This book is not character based. It is theme based wholly, and the charcters are not there to give us depth, but to act out what needs to be said by the author. This book is also not a typical novel, and people can't say they are annoyed about the random order of events, or the lack of a resolution. This book is made to fit the reader. I would highly reccomend this book to anyone who I feel is open-minded and free-spirted enough to experiance something wholely different then any other book ever written
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Summary: A banned book list is your best reading friend :)
Review: I checked this book out of a USAF base library 20 years ago specifically because it was a perennial on local school district banned book lists when I was growing up. Otherwise, I wouldn't have given it a second thought. I ended up reading most of the rest of KV's books, which in turn, had a great deal with the shaping of my political point of view. To the school districts of Long Island N.Y who banned this book during the 70's, thanks for showing me the way to the best reading experiences I've ever had. What good is this book? Well, I'm no literary critic, but I will say to younger readers out there, this book was the first I read that married comic and tragic elements in the same instance. KV may not have invented this concept, but he certainly knows how to use it.
Rating: 
Summary: History and wierdness intertwined into a story of genious
Review: Vonnegut truely out did himself in this story, delivering a tale revealing the effects of war on society, individuals and family. It taught me a lot about the end of the second world war as the story is partiallly placed in Dresden before, during and after its bombing and placed on another planet-according to the protagonist, who can travel through time-where aliens put him in an inhuman zoo with a female of our species. It is original, funny, depressing and uplifting. A work of imagination and much thought, as it is an American classic. I am looking forward to reading more from Vonnedut.
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Summary: Review of Slauhterhouse Five by young Vonnegut fan
Review: Slaughterhouse Five is a brilliant work: crsip, concise, comedic, and compassionate. My favorite of the Vonnegut books I've read so far.
Rating:
Summary: An American Classic! Truly unique and fascinating!
Review: This is the ultimate World War II classic but far from typical. Slaughterhouse Five is sophisticated and eye opening. Written in Kurt Vonnegut's unique style it's one of his most personal novels describing the destruction of the German city of Dresden and it's lasting effect on the main character, Billy Pilgram. Slaughterhouse Five points out the absurdity of war and destruction, the torment of mental dysfunction and raises questions about cosmic justice and human nature. There is so much packed into this novel it can be overwhelming. Read it more than once and you see new aspects each time. This story makes you think!
Rating:
Summary: a nimble, gentle comedy transformed by grueling horror
Review: I'm reviewing a second reading of this book. Fifteen or so years have gone by since I first picked it up with unreal expectations and a teenager's misunderstanding of many of the key ideas Vonnegut attempts to set forth. The first time I was amused and occasionally moved by the poignancy, drama and rather offbeat satirical insight of aspects of life I couldn't yet hope to have a grasp on. Now, this time, after a day and a half of plowing through this remarkable (and remarkably easy to read) novel I feel as though I have been touched to the very core of my being . . .Now of course this praise is a bit high-faulting, based more on my mood at the time of the undertaking, but it is a powerful and educational experience nonetheless. A story of time and key moments lived in jump-cut fragments, Slaughterhouse Five relates the key memorable moments in a man's life, a man so harrowed and scarred by irrational realization and recognition of the horrors of the world he lives in that he literally becomes 'trapped in time'. Not so much a 'science-fiction' novel as a study of mental degeneration, Vonnegut tells the story of Billy Pilgram, a man who witnessed the greatest massacre in the history of warfare and lived through it to become a productive, happy and successful member of American society. But he is haunted by the past and his witness has allowed him to not just to expect the worst from the future, but to accept it, to allow these events to crash down upon him (plane crash killing all but him, death of a wife, the increasing indifference and resentment of his children as he grows older, et cetera, ad infinitum). The statement of 'time' as a concept lived all in the same moment, of life existing spontaneously in elliptical cycles, past merging with future and the present never truly mattering relates how desolately unhinged this victim of circumstance has become. I do not believe that Billy has truthfully become unglued and randomly travels through time, back and forth, throughout his life, but that his life simply stopped at the bombing of Dresden and the shattered reflections and memories of his overwhelming terror and moral approbriation have haunted him throughout his life, so much so that the rest of his existence is spent waiting to die; simmering, forever experiencing the past as his life forms and decontructs in the present tense. The addition of an alien society actually take the place of God, a once loyal concept that ceased to hold meaning for him. These aliens have simply given him a new gospel to preach, a new understanding to base his life upon and, whether real or imaginary (like any conceptual 'higher power') they have a profound affect on his life. It is a deep, very personal look (Vonnegut repeatedly refers to himself throughout the novel, opening with a very significant autobiographical chapter that outlines his own ideas on witnessing the massacre) and even goes so far as to include a fictional recreation of himself shuddering right there in the slaughterhouse beside all these products of his imagination, imagination, it seems, saving his own life. For all its simplicity, for all its good-natured and often dark comedy, there is no laughter in this book. There are smiles, there might be the occasional titter, but the ultimate effect, for me at least, was one of aching, heart-rending movement, stirring even my own black heart of pitilessness into a genuinely humane feeling of honest human empathy. And the best part is, reading over several of the other reviews, is that it seems to affect each reader in a dicisively different manner . . .
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