Rating: 
Summary: Don't just read this book, reread it, and then read it again
Review: This book should only be read in softcover, and if possible one that has been dogeared and has a slightly torn cover. Slaughterhouse Five at one time had me feeling that I knew the answer to all of mankinds problems and at other times asking myself "what the hell did that paragraph mean?" Is Vonnegut Billy? Am I Billy? Are you? Who knows? Who cares? Maybe we all are a little piece of Billy in our own little ways. But, this is not a literary critic to analyze characters and plots and subplots and symbolism. They are all there but you only have to find them if you feel it is important to you. I felt that Vonnegut's style of short paragraphs and catchy tag lines kept me reading the next page and then the next and all of a sudden I was closing in page 205, 206, 207... And I started reading more slowly because, like all books I enjoy, I didn't want it to end. I enjoyed the ride. I didn't catch all the sites along the way, but I can take that trip again and again. And, I plan on it. I recommend you invest the time to read this book. If you hate it, you hate it and you can sell it at a garage sale. But, if after you finished it you said "did I miss something or is the auther insane?" then reread it at another time in another mood in another setting. This was my first book by Vonnegut that I have read. I will read more of his work, but he has to be taken in stages. Go for it. Read it.
Rating:
Summary: Weird, wacky and smart
Review: This book is not a typical book I would read. I wish I could say I gave it a try in order to expand my horizons and sample something different, but I started reading it out of boredom. At first I thought whoever wrote this book must have been on some major drugs, but as I started to get more into it, I realize that the book has a deeper message.
The book describes the events during the Dresden bombing through the eyes of Billy Pilgrim, a simple man, who invents a very differnt way of dealing with things. Billy Pilgrim struck me as one of the happiest people on earth. I realize that this might not be the conventinal view, but who wouldn't want to be able to escape troubles of this life by travelling through time to better, more peacefull days? I was suprised that this book made me think (given it's weird events and almmost sci-fi feel, which is usualy not my thing) and that's really all that matters. I might forget the story one day, but this book's alternative views on war, life and death will definitelly stick with me.
Rating: 
Summary: Intriguing, but Hold Your Applause
Review: The ideas and themes of this book are excellent and well thought-out. However, the manner in which they are presented leaves something to be desired. This being an anti-war novel, much of the book consists of war anecdotes condemning any kind of killing whatsoever. The fictional planet of Tralfamadore is also present, displaying another world where war is accepted as an unavoidable force, and is ultimately ignored in time. This represents a good descrpition of this book's ideals. When the main character, Blly Pilgrim, lives different parts of his life throughout the book, is where the novel takes a rather unappealing turn. It seems we read too much of his later life, and what we read gives no representation of who Billy Pilgrim actually is. As another reviewer points out, Billy is treated as a pawn, with no real personality. And because this book unremittingly goes against killing off any sort of life, in any capacity, it seems that treating Pilgrim as just another life is inappropriate. Overall, I wasn't totally pleased with the book, but would still reccomend it nonetheless.
Rating: 
Summary: A great book, but is it anti-war?
Review: This book is not quite like anything else I've read. I guess I could call it a fatalist's account of the firebombing of Dresden, but I don't think this does it justice.I enjoyed it for the style of its writing and its recurring themes (death, sex, fatalism, and time, among others), and not so much for the plot or the characters -- which I agree aren't that interesting, except for Kilgore Trout and the Tralfamadorians. The style of writing is humorously matter-of-fact throughout, though the issues Vonnegut brings up are serious. As for the plot, there's not much to say, but I don't think I should give it away in this review. In short, if you like thoughtfully-written fiction, read this book. Now, in response to some other reviews I've read on this site: I'm a bit puzzled by those who characterize this as an anti-war book. Yes, Vonnegut does seem to be implying that war is absurd, but he seems to think that almost everything about modern life is absurd. I didn't like this book because it showed me the horrors of war (I already knew that war is horrible); I liked it because it showed the war from a perspective I had never seen before. I enjoyed seeing things from Billy Pilgrim's reflective and supremely fatalistic point of view. In fact, I got the impression that Vonnegut was parodying Billy's anti-war sentiments, such as when he pleas to the Trafalmadorians, "How can a planet live at peace?" Or, in one of my favorite passages, when Billy watches the war movie backwards and sees factories dismantling bombs, "separating the dangerous contents into minerals. Touchingly, it was mainly women who did this work. The minerals were then shipped to specialists in remote areas. It was their business to put them into the ground, to hide them cleverly, so they would never hurt anybody ever again. The American fliers turned in their uniforms, became high school kids. And Hitler turned into a baby... " I think that Vonnegut was smart enough to realize that he could no sooner stop wars than glaciers. I also doubt that we are supposed to take the "philosophy" of the Tralfamadorians seriously. To those of you who do: do you really think that Vonnegut wrote this book because he believed that we should all "ignore the awful times, and concentrate on the good ones"? C'mon, give him more credit than that!
Rating:
Summary: The Common-Man's Classic
Review: How does one go about writing a review for Slaughterhouse Five? The genre can't even be defined (horror? comedy? war drama? sciene-fiction?), let alone the essence. What can be told about Slaughterhouse Five is that it makes the reader reconsider. It can easily change how one looks at war, peace, family life, aging, humanity and even the science fiction genre in one sitting. As thought provoking and entertaining as this is, perhaps the most endearing aspect of the book is the protagonist. Billy Pilgrim is easy to love because he is simply an exagerated form of the common man; observant, thoughtful, and destined to be bewildered by the world from the moment he entered it. The reader doesn't know what to make of Billy or his sitation, but he or she loves him nonetheless. In a way, it seems that this is how Vonnegut wants people to view his story - with a combination of sadness, confusion, and laughter.
Rating:
Summary: Incredible!
Review: If there is a single book I believe everyone in the world should read, for some reason, that would be this one. The Tralfamadorians are the epitome of intellectual thought, and Vonnegut forces the reader to examine his own beliefs on the nature of time, death, and what it means to be a human. Vonnegut is my hero!
Rating: 
Summary: So It Goes
Review: Though this book has so many reviews, I decided to share my opinion. It appears that a fair number of people love this book, as it was at my school when we read it. However, I'd like to tell anyone who thought it was overly strange and disjointed, I agree! So it goes... some enjoy classics like this, some do not. My english teacher told me I took it too seriously. All I have to say to him is, "Po-tee-weet!"
Rating:
Summary: Unstuck in time
Review: Those who have read any of Vonneguts other books will recognize teh light humor and unique way in which he writes them, although in this book parts are funny but its like your almost afraid to laugh. Slaughter house five is about an ordinary man although some expraordinary things happen to him, and his experiences. How he daels with his experience with the fire bombing at Dresdon, his wife, daughter and some other some what normal happenings. Although it is not only about his encounters on earth but also when he travled to another planet. The real reason why this book is unique is because of something that Vonnegut explains early on in the book which is that the main character is "unstuck in time". That is all it says and after you read more it becomes more clear exactly what that sentence means.
Rating:
Summary: personal recommentation
Review: Kurt Vonnegut, writer of famous and unique books like "Galápagos", "Cat's cradle" and "Bluebeard" has to be seen as one of the most important modern writers. Working with his own impressions of the firebombing of Dresden which he witnessed as a POW, he wrote an impressive anti-war-book. Like Joseph Heller, who deals with roughly the same topic (war) in his book "Catch 22", another very impressive anti-war-book, Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse five" is for me a little, but very strong cry for humanity and peace, more than ever important in a time where war-mongers seem to dominate! Vonnegut's protagonist Billy Pilgrim, unable and unwilling to struggle with the woes of war, witnesses the total destruction of Dresden by a firestorm, created by an allied air raid, experiences time-travel and contact with exterrestrian life forms. In plain and simple words and phrases the writer tells the story of an innocent hero, a hero who never fired a shot, who never tried to do all the hero-business like killing and destroying, who barely tried to survive.
Rating: 
Summary: Genius or Neurosis?
Review: I found myself wanting to understand more about what the main character thought about the war, about the people in the war, about his relationship with his wife and kids, etc. But he seemed to think nothing at all. Billy was simply be a pawn in someone elses game, always. That's pathetic, depressing, and disturbing. I fault the author and his main character with not taking any responsability for anything. NO, we are not just pawns. We do have some control over our lives and our fates are not pre-known (we do not jump around in time so we have no idea what is going to happen to us in the future). But if you do nothing to take control of your life, you can be sure that others will take control of it for you. ...
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