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Summary: one of the finest modern novels, good to teach
Review: This is a very good example of non-linear narrative to introduce to students. Also, the pathos and humor and social criticism offer some depth for a classroom reading in contemporary American literature.
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Summary: Extremely eccentric, yet strangely emotional
Review: Slauter House Five is an incredible work of art. The twists and turns that the story takes and the comical fiction parts of the story are ingenious. On the other hand Vonegut describes the carnage and inhumanity of the bombing of Dresdon, Germany. I believe that a good part of the book was written with Vonegut's emotional memories as an eyewitness. At a recent speech Vonegut was asked by a member of the crowd, " what benefited you most from the bombings of Dresdon?" His reply was, " I made about 500,000 dollars, thats about two dollars for every person killed". If you have an interest in classic American literature this book should be on the top of your list.
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Summary: Billy Pilgram's odyssey though a "fractured life" duringWWII
Review: Billy Pilgram, Kilgore Trout and Montana Wildhack are unfogettable characters. The Tralfamadorians really know that no one ever dies they just appear dead but are living in time forever. Vonnegut you are the man. So it goes.
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Summary: Hilarious, biting writing style wont let you put it down
Review: When I started reading the book I had other plans. I put these off though because I couldn't stop reading. Easily Vonnegut's best book. Easy to read compared to his others with but you are just as engrossed. A must read!
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Summary: Fantastic!
Review: I hate war books. But this is not a war book, or at least it is not what I envision as a war book. It was a fascinating journey through the mind of a war victum. I can't believe it took me three years to finally get around to reading this one!
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Summary: expected more.
Review: after reading cat's cradle and especially sirens of titan, i was expecting to love slaughter house 5. Instead i was basically disappointed. it just seemed to be a rehashing of other ideas, and just when the book started to grow on me and really pull me in, it would loose it's focus and my interest would be gone again. i came into this book expecting so much and came out with so little.
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Summary: An advocate for America's insecurity
Review: I pity those who did not enjoy this book, for I honestly fear that they are missing out on a wonderful side of life: humor. Vonnegut is a liar. He looks you straight in the face, lies to you, convinces you, and then ends his book. When you snap out of his trance, you can only smile. Vonnegut isn't about symbolism or hidden messages. He's not trying to say ANYTHING. He will however provoke your lazy brain into thinking in terms of total Orwellian doublethink. Contradictions are the world. Get used to it, and love it.
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Summary: It's not about war!
Review: I'm a bit bothered that everyone's interpretation of this book is "An anti-war statement." Were it nothing but that, I would give it 2 stars at most for covering a trite theme (everyone knows war is bad) in an annoying style.But this book captures the horror of *living*, period-- the horror of going on a roller-coaster through whatever life hands you, with no rewind or ability to look at everything holistically. The sanity of the Tralfamadorians and the contentedness of Billy illustrate, by contrast, the confused, frustrating, short lives of normal people-- and the fact that they spend so much of their precious time, which can never be reclaimed, doing things that just aren't worth it, such as fighting for their countries. One of the things I like best about Vonnegut's early work is that it is not persuasive or didactic, but merely analytical; it exposes truths about life for better or for worse, and lets the reader takes away what s/he takes away. In amazingly few pages, this book provides a terrifying yet mobilizing picture of the fact that we will never get back those lost seconds-- and while you may accept this idea intellectually, Slaughterhouse-Five will help you accept it emotionally.
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Summary: Wonderful just wonderful
Review: This book was just stunning!!! I could read it over and over again!! This book was amusing and intreguing. Never Read anything like it.
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Summary: A absurdist view of the fire-bombings of Dresden
Review: Slaughterhouse Five In "Slaughterhouse Five," Kurt Vonnegut is trying to present how life is precious and how any form of war, no matter for what reason, is inhuman. Even though this book is antiwar, it was not its purpose to stop soldiers from fighting but end violence against innocent civilians. In his introduction, he says:"The drama of any raid on a civilian population, a gesture in diplomacy to a man like Henry Kissinger, is about the inhumanity of many of man's inventions to man." In this antiwar book I think that the most interesting idea is how Vonnegut brings aliens to this story to give it a taste of science fiction. The Trafalmadorians taught this character, a representative of the human race, how to travel through time and how to live and see one more dimension than he could see now. In one of his talks to Trafalmadorians, the alien says:"We Trafalmadorians read all at once, not one after another. There isn't any particular relationship between all the messages, except that when seen all at once, they produce an image of life that is beautiful and surprising and deep." He taught Billy to look deeper into each moment and see the profound meaning of life. And the profound meaning of life would be to live it and to enjoy it, rather than dying in some little stupid worthless war. Billy time travels in his mind but relives each moment in his imagination as if it is always happening. Each new sentence of the book Billy could be in a complete different place and when remembering he would relize that everything he did then was of no importnace to him now or then. He reminds us that life is to live and all of its ideas are not to be set aside because we have only one shot at life so why waste it. If you're interested in finding out how Vonnegut portrays soldiers in an anti-war book and how he puts civilians in the fight interweaving all of their experiences through the genre of science fiction, this is a book to read.
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