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Summary: The childrens crusade
Review: This is another incredible book delivered by Kurt Vonnegut. It, as the rest of his books, takes a satiracle look at the world and mocks society. Vonnegut manages to combine those elements with strange sci-fi. ideas that somehow mix to create an excellent book. In this novel, Vonnegut manages to combine time travel, alien abductions, and world war II; it sounds like an odd combination,huh. However, Vonnegut does an excellent job, as always, to bring relevance to each angle. Billy Pilgrim, the main character,has become unstuck in time. He does not move in chronological order through life. Instead, he jumps from structured moment to structured moment. He cannot control where he will go next, whether he is going to arrive in spaceship on its way to Tralfamadore, in a meat locker in Dresden, hiding from the firebombings, or sitting at a party with his wife. Billy leaps from moment to moment slowly telling the story of his life and the horror of world war II. This book is tremendous; though it is slightly toned down compared to most Vonnegut novels with respect to hidden sarcasm, it still has a wonderful theme that will make you want to read it again and again.
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Summary: Masterpiece
Review: ...SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE ranks as one of the greatest war novels (anti-war novels, I suppose) of all time.Vonnegut is a genius, of course, but there are novels where he lets oddity take over for story. That's not the case here.... SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE is horrifying, hilarious and profound simultaneously.
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Summary: Inferior Vonnegut Title
Review: As a novel, this book is a very nice piece of literature. For anyone interested in Vonnegut's writing, however, it appears very "done" - it seems Vonnegut intended this book for the mass audience, while some of his other books were meant more for a smaller audience, one that was ready for his bitter sarcasm and irony. In other words, this book is toned-down Vonnegut. While it has many interesting twists and turns, they are either to subtle for the average reader, or so obvious that they can no longer qualify as sarcasm, but are rather elementary criticisms of war, human nature, and society (the usual suspects). If you want something truly interesting, read his more thought-provoking novel, Sirans of Titan which is outstanding. If you are looking for sarcasm in general, make sure to check out One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest, which is the best book ever written. Don't read Catcher in the Rye, it is irrelevant :)
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Summary: A book to be read again and again
Review: Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five is increadable. It is a book that gets better every time you read it. His style of writting is fast paced and full of things you won't catch the first time. His unique narrative sets this book apart from all other novels I have read and his message is profound. A must read for everyone.
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Summary: An amazing journey through space and time
Review: Kurt Vonnegut's novel "Slaughterhouse Five" is one of those great books that defies easy classification. A blend of science fiction, satire, and war fiction, it is both fun and grim. The book tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, an optometrist, World War II veteran, and apparent UFO abductee who becomes "unstuck in time." We accompany Billy back and forth from his wartime experiences to his encounters with aliens and to other events in his remarkable life. "Slaughterhouse" is greatly enlivened by a colorful, richly imagined cast of supporting characters: American-turned-Nazi Howard W. Campbell, movie star Montana Wildhack, and more. But probably the most resonant of these amazing creations is Kilgore Trout, the underappreciated science fiction writer. The book has an intriguing structure. Vonnegut's prose is a joy to experience: he combines a sort of Hemingwayesque simplicity with a knack for rendering startling, and often ridiculous, details. He is often very ironic and funny. Along the way, he explores ideas about free will and the nature of time. Much of the book is about writing itself. In this book there is an intriguing reference to Stephen Crane's classic "The Red Badge of Courage"; perhaps this reference is Vonnegut's way of directly connecting with the tradition of American war fiction. But this book transcends that genre. "Slaughterhouse Five" is sad, surreal, whimsical, brutal, and oddly gentle. It's a remarkable book; I highly recommend it. As an interesting companion text, try "The Things They Carried," Tim O'Brien's excellent book about the Vietnam War.
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Summary: Bet the House on this One
Review: Kurt Vonnegut does what so few other modern authors are able to: create important yet easily consumed literature. The latter half of the 20th century was far from the golden age of books with most novels written falling into the category that I kindly label "Pulp." In short, John Grisham, Tom Clancy, and the like are not changing the way we think. Vonnegut, in contrast is. This dryly witty commentary on war actually means something. Its about violence, its about inter personal relationships, its about the way we think and act as human beings and animals. These themes are sometimes hard to spot but the text is never hard to handle. The books is not long winded and it reads quickly. A perfect fit for a first time Vonnegut reader or anyone who was born with even the smallest cynical streak.
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Summary: More than antiwar is anti-sillyness
Review: Somehow I missed the point of why this book is catalogued as anti-war, yes it indicated that the bombing of Dresden lacked any military logic. Although hate for the enemy is not exactly an absurd feeling and it can not be denied that in 1945 the German civilians were not considered an innocent party in the confrontation. Furthermore, it can also be argued that the end everything that we do lacks a real sense of purpose, basically because the reasons we believe are ours have been acquired from someone else (our culture) and that includes giving up our life in a war, choosing a profession, or electing the next weekend movie. For me this book superficially remind us that we spend our life sleeping while simultaneously being awake, but that if at some point we take the time to look at our thoughts we might be able to get unstuck from the situation in which we are living and really be an independent person.
On the other hand this books makes you smile once in a while but is not hilarious.
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Summary: Quite possibly the best book written in the last 100 years
Review: Slaughterhouse 5 is an imaginative thought-provoking tale about Billy Pilgrim, who served in WWII, later becomes an optomestrist, and then is abducted to a distant planet called Tramalfadore, where he lives a parallel life with a woman named Montana. While on Tramalfadore, several light-years away, it is as if Billy is not absent from his life on earth either. Even more interesting is the way the book skips about in the chronology of Billy's dual lives --- for example, the book hints at Billy's death in the 1970s and you expect it to come at the end, but it takes place briefly and without note in the middle, and then skips back to another (and less final!) event in his life. I appreciated that characters are not given much emphasis in this book, just a telling detail of their relationship to Billy and his opinion of them. Normally I don't like undeveloped characters but, in the context of this book, it seems to be very appropriate. We don't know much about Billy's parents or wife or daughter (though all make an appearance in the book) and that is fine. In fact, we don't know a whole lot about Billy himself, we are just observing his lives. What I enjoyed most were the comments on society -- I actually photocopied one and kept it in my purse -- the page of how it is a myth that anyone in America can be rich and that is why there is no brotherhood amongst the poor, because everyone SHOULD be rich "so there must be something wrong with you if you are as poor as I am". All of them are as true today as they were in the 1940s.
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Summary: a fun, light read, but overrated.
Review: i know im going to enrage a lot of diehard vonnegut fans out there, but i honestly dont think this book is the holy grail its made out to be. its entertaining, original, funny, and even a little educational, but there are better books out there that have gotten less word-of-mouth advertisement. i liked, and i highly recommend it, but not as the modern-classic end-all-beat-all. that honor, in my humble opinion, belongs to thomas pynchon for Gravity's Rainbow.
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Summary: A good Catch
Review: Slaughterhouse five presents a refreshing view of the time-worn anti-war theme. The novel skillfully blends history, science fiction, and humor to illustrate the story of Billy Pilgrim, a man who was never made for war. Slaughterhouse five focuses more on Billy's life than the actually bombing of Dresden to show that war itself is not as dramatic as the people's lives who fought it and were changed by its effects. If you are deciding whether to read Slaugherhouse five or Catch-22, pick Slaughterhouse five. Though both books are similar in theme, Slaughterhouse five is shorter, easier to follow, and far more amusing and enjoyable than Catch-22.
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