Rating: 
Summary: The Children's Crusade
Review: Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a World War II vertan who has become "unstuck in time." Set partly in war-ravaged Europe, post-war America, and the alien planet of Tralfamadore, Vonnegut creates a modern novel unlike any I have ever read. One of the many creative aspects of this novel is the style in which it was written. Vonnegut writes the story in a series of flashbacks and sporadically jumps from one point in Billy's life to another. He also writes in an easy-to-read manner that allows the reader to understand the story. Billy Pilgrim is Vonnegut's anti-hero, described as a "filthy flamingo," and as Cinderella. Billy struggles to deal with himself and the absolute tragedy of the world around him. Billy finds solace on the planet of Tralfamadore. Tralfamadore is obviously a figment of Billy's imagination that he created to escape reality. Tralfamadore is Billy's Garden of Eden; Billy is Adam, and Montana Wildhack, a motion picture star also brought to Tralfamadore, is his Eve. Vonnegut successfully makes his point that "there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre" by repeating simple phrases like "poor old Edgar Derby" and "so it goes" to make powerful statements. The black humor of the novel also lightens the subject matter and allows the reader to truly appreciate its sadness. Its thought-provoking themes and clever approach at writing make Vonnegut's "famous book about Dresden" one of the great modern novels that won't die as other attempts have. So it goes.
Rating: 
Summary: Too zany for me in a book about war
Review: I definitely enjoyed some of the humor and the innovative structure of the book. Regarding the latter, I've become so accustomed to seeing movies and reading books in an out-of-order fashion and it's fun to do so. Always there will be some confusion at the beginning, but the order of events clears up. The humor was more of this ludicrous type - the type where you're reading something and you say to yourself "Well that is just silly" because it was written to be like that. But maybe my complaint stems from that in regard to the whole alien kidnapping thing. When I started reading that, I could not take this book seriously anymore. Was that the Vonnegut's intent? This is what war can do to a person? This is how a person reacts to war? Billy becomes "unstuck in time" so he doesn't think about war or face the realities of war? If Vonnegut wants to say that war is silly and pointless, well of course it is - we all agree on that. Basically Billy went mildly insane and this is what the book details in its plot. Maybe the point did get across to me, but it was a point not worth repeating again and again. I was looking for something a little deeper or more meaningful.
Rating:
Summary: Humanism, Existensialism, Sci-Fi and WWII
Review: Vonnegut is a taste for those who like thinking. Thinking is the main thing here. I think many would be turned off from his style because they think he is not orderly enough in his story telling. To the contrary, I think Vonnegut is more complexly orderly than most people want to put up with. He uses fiction, and science fiction as a device. They are not the reasons he is writing. He uses fiction as a means to tell about real events, and to talk about real ideas. He is not interested in the best seller list. Vonnegut wants to change people by introducing them to higher and simpler ideas about life than they are used to handling. His humanism is very religious, his agnosticism points to life itself and existence as governing deity, and love is the code of ethics for his worship. He is worth the read for the thoughts he contains. I don't agree with most of his philosophy, but I think most good philosophers are not as good at writing as is Kurt Vonnegut. Vonnegut usually includes rather explicit discussion of sexuality. He does not write as a typical modern fiction author who includes these sections to boost ratings. He has reasons that he puts these peices into his stories. But the warning remains that Slaughterhouse 5 contains discussion of some disturbing subjects.
Rating:
Summary: A most unusual and enjoyable book!
Review: I would agree with the other reviews that say this book reminds them of Douglas Adams (or maybe Monty Python). Phrases are repeated and things that seem to make no sense initially, come back later for some humorous irony. Also, in typical Vonnegut style, there are no heroes or villains, and no punch-lines. I also enjoyed the author's unusual directness and honesty. If you are fortunate enough to read the version of this book which contains the author's introduction; Vonnegut writes, "The Dresden atrocity, tremendously expensive and meticulously planned, was so meaningless, finally, that only one person on the entire planet got any benefit from it. I am that person. I wrote this book, which earned a lot of money for me in royalties and made my reputation, such as it is. One way or another, I got two or three dollars for every person killed. Some business I'm in." Ironically, the book that was supposed to be about the firebombing of Dresden, contains very little information regarding the actual event. Vonnegut who witnessed the event first hand, admits that he had the intention of writing this fabulous book as soon as he returned from the war. However, he states that he just didn't have enough material for a book. Twenty-five years later he produces a masterpiece! This is a short book and requires little investment to enjoy. I would recommend reading it in one sitting so that the many ironies are not lost. Well worth the effort.
Rating:
Summary: Aliens & Time Travel...who knew I'd like that?
Review: Kurt Vonnegut is a GENIUS. Pure genius. After reading some reviews of this terrific work, I can understand why he formatted the book the way he did. He wanted to separate the pure Earthlings from those who have the potential of becoming "unstuck" in time, and then speak to those who could understand and even those Earthlings with the desire to understand. All of this is Slaughterhouse-speak, but in order to read this excellent piece of work, you must disregard the conventional novel structure. Let go of your book-reading safety net and let Vonnegut unwittingly spin his tale in the organized and haphazard genius that Slaughterhouse-5 follows. Those who criticize the outline to which Slaughterhouse-5 adheres simply have not allowed themselves to open their minds to something out of the ordinary...which this book truly is. Billy Pilgrim is a well-developed character, and although the majority of the book is written in third-person, the reader feels as if they are reading a first-hand account. He becomes "unstuck" in time, as many of us wish we could do and sometimes are able to do within the dark corridors of our psyche, but for Billy Pilgrim, it is via the horrors of World War II and the bombing of Dresden. But what is truly remarkable is how Vonnegut weaves aliens, time travel, and war stories together without turning off the average anti-science fiction nut. The story is kept witty and intellectual with the underlying struggle of Billy Pilgrim, and kept fresh by "randomly" (as some people refer to the structure; however, do not take the genius of Kurt Vonnegut so lightly...the structure is easily underestimated, which is a mistake you cannot make when it comes to Vonnegut) jumping in between the different periods of Pilgrim's life. If you doubted this book initially, have another stab at it. You are missing something crucial, and you are getting caught up in the way in which the book is formatted. This is an excellent, EXCELLENT piece of literature that can only improve with every reading.
Rating: 
Summary: Perhaps I should have lowered my expecations
Review: When I sat down to read "Slaughterhouse-Five" by Kurt Vonnegut I was expecting to find a well-written documentation of the firebombing of Dresden that occurred during World War II. What I got was a semi-fictitious story focusing on a young male soldier, who really wasn't much of a soldier (or a man, for that matter) and who I deemed to suffer from obvious psychiatric problems. This book, in many ways, was a disappointment for me. I had read Vonnegut's "Welcome To The Monkey House" previously and was expecting the same style of writing and satire in this book. Unfortunately, the satire that was present was downplayed by the mental wanderings of the book's main character, Billy Pilgrim. "It is short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds." (pg. 19) I have found this quote from the beginning of the book to be true for the book. The formatting of the book is jumbled and short and all mixed together. It's as if the author threw all the different parts of the story in a bowl and drew them out one by one, pasting them into a book in the order he drew them. That does not create a good book. However, this is not to say that I didn't enjoy some aspect of the book. The colorful language amused me, especially when it popped up unexpectedly. But other than that, I found the book to be lacking the majority of the qualities that make a good book.
Rating:
Summary: Discovery Channel
Review: L: So, what did you think of the book? Did it go pretty smoothly for you? M: Yes, I actually finished it pretty quickly. L: I was able to read through it fast at first, but there were so many random parts that a lot of times I had to read sections twice before I understood everything. M: I thought it was kind of choppy, and a lot of the time when I finished reading a chapter, I was confused. I think one of the best words to describe the book is "random." L: Sometimes I wondered if maybe Vonnegut was trying to be random on purpose, because war can be really confusing and complicated like that. Like when someone is a soldier and they are not really sure where they are and they get disoriented and they don't know why they keep fighting because they don't understand everything about why the war is going on, just like when we were reading and we didn't understand all the parts of the book and how they connected and why we continued reading. M: I never thought of it that way, Laura! Interesting analogy. An example of the randomosity from chapter six: "And Billy worked his hands in his muff as he marched. His fingertips, working there in the hot darkness of the muff, wanted to know what the two lumps in the lining of the little impresario's were. The fingertips got inside the lining. They palpated the lumps, the pea-shaped thing and the horseshoe-shaped thing. The parade had to halt by a busy corner. The traffic light was red. M: I totally remember that quote from the book because I kept laughing at the work "muff." And I kept thinking to myself, "What does this have to do with the story?" What do you think about the quote, Laura? L: There were definetely many instances when paragraphs seemed to just come out of the blue. Sometimes there were important issues that I thought about because of different things that happened in the book, but a lot of the time I was just bewildered. M: I thought the book had some interesting ideas about war, since it is an anti-war book. Like, war is unstoppable. I liked how Vonnegut compared it to a glacier-there's no use trying to get rid of it, because it will always be there, no matter what. L: So it goes M: Ha ha, that's a good one. L: Vonnegut writes "So it goes" whenever death is mentioned in the book, which is very often. Usually it comes up after a human dies, but a few times it came up about other things, like plants, or book reviews. Do you think everything in the world is sort of alive? M: Sure, I think things are alive, but I'm not sure if they have feelings like humans do. They might to a certain extent, but I don't think a plant feels the same way I do! L: Let's start talking about the aliens M: This is a topic I really like. Those little green creatures crack me up. L: They sure did do a lot of crazy stuff! One of my favorites parts is when the Tralfamadorians explain how it takes something like 7 genders to make a baby. M: Or what about the part when Billy and Montana were getting it on, and the aliens watched like it was some kind of entertainment, and they (the aliens) treated them (billy and Montana) like they were some kind of animals being observed in a zoo, and it's weird to think how we watch animals in a zoo, and the aliens watched humans in their own "zoo-like" environment. It brought to mind a line from a popular song-You and me baby ain't nothing but mammals so let's do it like they do on the Discovery Channel L: Yeah! I bet if we watched ourselves (humans) from a distance, we would see a lot of pretty weird stuff occurrring. Sometimes we act strange, and do things that don't really make sense...just like Vonnegut doesn't always seem to make sense! M: Would you recommend this book to a friend, Laura? L: Hmm...I think it's a really important book, and it's a classic and stuff. It made me think a lot and I'm glad I've read it. I guess I would tell people they should read it when they are ready, and if they get a little confused, that's okay. M: So it goes L: Our review is dead now.
Rating:
Summary: Great read, Great book!
Review: Very well done and I really enjoyed it! Picked it up as a book report for schooling and read it through, enjoying it all the way through! Well written!
Rating: 
Summary: Funny and revealing, but out of date, and too technical
Review: I had to read this book for my 9th grade English Class, and unlike all the other school readings, it's actually funny and fun! I liked the way time swiches, you constantly change from one high point to another. At first, I wasn't so used to it, but as the book progressed, I loved the time travel more and more. Our teacher told us this was a very significant book in the 60th, it was a book for the hippy generation. We discussed the anti-war, free love, and acceptance aspects of the book, but because there wasn't anything that's really hard to understand, not much things were discussed. It was a Spring Break reading, and all my classmates who actually read the book had a lot of fun with it. (When your teacher askes you to read something, you better read it!) I was expecting more war scenes, but the book didn't have much. You should go back to the beginning of the book after you are finished, also should know that the person talking at the first and last chapter is in fact Curt Vonnecut, the author himself. Happy Always.
Rating:
Summary: Dark Humor highlight of modern classic
Review: In my opinion, Slaughterhouse-Five was a very thought-provoking book and I enjoyed it very much. At first the story seemed a little slow, Vonnegut actually devoted the first chapter to tellin ghow he considered the book a failure and how he could not seem to write a book about his experience in Dresden. he goes to a friend who also cannot recall anything significant about the bombing. The next chapter seemed to start to pick the book up. The war is not mentioned until about half way through th chapter and then spastically jumps in and out of Billy's military career. The is perhaps a message that Vonnegut is trying to get across. He does not say much about war because war is senseless and there is really nothing to say about it. Billy seems to be unphased by death when he is in the war. This is shown when his group is being shot at. Billy is narrowly missed by a bullet and stands stil in order to give the shooter another chance at hitting him. If Billy does not see death as a thing to fear he must not htink of war as anything too important. From Billy's point ov view all the war brings is death. Even after the bombing of Dresden Billy does not pay attention to the dead bodies he is cleaning up but focuses on other, more obscure details. FOr instance, Billy said that the best moment of his life was laying on the horse cart under the sun in Dresden. MOst people could not be able to enjoy any moment in Dresden after the bombing rad with the 135,000 dead people all around. This unrelenting obliviousness gave Billy a comical aura. There is much more dark humor such as this spread throught the book. It's the unique humor that makes this book stand out from the many others I have read
|
