Slaughterhouse-Five

Rating:
Summary: Gotta love that Vonnegut...
Review: This is, as are most Vonnegut novels, a true classic. However, for a perfect 10, I'd recommend Sirens of Titan. Maybe it's the fact that I read this one in school that prevents it from being a 10. The movie was sure strange though.....

Rating:
Summary: Required Reading
Review: Slaughterhouse-Five is one of those books that should be read, re-read and then read again. It is a hilarious and unflattering portrayal of humanity's capability for inhumanity. With the use of postmodern tools like irony and parody Vonnegut is trying to tell us to at least try to give a damn. I am forever grateful to my teachers in college for putting this masterpiece on the required reading list. Slaughterhouse-Five was my first Vonnegut novel but it certainly won't be the last.

Rating:
Summary: I understand why it is a classic
Review: While I wasn't overly fond of the story (it was disjointed, had no plot, character development, or timeline) I really liked this book because of the political and philosophical statment made. I highly recommend this book.

Rating:
Summary: A MODERN MASTERPIECE
Review: The first of many Vonnegut books that I have read, this book opened my eyes to my own pessimism in mankind. To some this would be a bad thing but I really enjoyed explamining my own life through his words. I have even added a saying to my vocabulary to help me get through life: SO IT GOES

Rating:
Summary: Vonnegut criticism
Review: Slaughterhouse Five is probably Vonnegut's greatest novel, up there with Cat's Cradle. In the novel we meet WWII veteran Billy Pilgrim, a simple man who ends up encountering aliens on the planet Tralfamadore, escapes the horrible firebomings of Dresden, and crosses time and space continuously after the war. Vonnegut both mixes grim humor and sly seriousness while reflecting on his own experiences in World War II. He urges us not to think of our lives as Billy Pilgrim did, with an uncaring shrug and an existentialist's view. Vonnegut well deserves the praise he received and continues to receive from this great novel.

Rating:
Summary: Post-Modernism Challenged
Review: All the other commenters here are correct in their hihj praise of this classic. All I can add is to say that Vonnegut has captured our post-modern crisis perfectly. Behind us lies the rationality that led to the firebombing of Dresden; ahead lies the supposed ideal of Tralfamadore. But we are at home in neither. Vonnegut holds up a torch to show the way through the dark.

Rating:
Summary: Classic reading
Review: I was forced to read this book in high school and remember thinking for a book I was forced to read, I enjoyed it. Although at the time I found it difficult to follow. I don't think this is a book one reads for simple enjoyment. It's pretty deep, if I remember correctly. Some of Vonnegut's other stuff is more enjoyable, 'Galapagos' for example.

Rating:
Summary: Without question the best of Kurt Vonnegut
Review: Listen: for a reason I cannot explain, I wish I was inside Slaughterhouse-5 when the fire bombs raged over Dresden. Surely Vonnegut would laugh if he saw my review. Clearly it was Hell for him. His character, Billy Pilgrim, is a defeated man because of the experience. But because I was not there....becuase I can only read the story....I can never really know what it was like in that meat locker when the giant's feet pounded the earth above. I can never really know what it was like to come out of hiding, among the tremendous blocks of shattered concrete, and feel the sunlight break on my face. To be at German gunpoint mining corpses must truly be the most nightmarish experinece. But still...I can't help but say that it is something so terrible, so testing of my own humanity, that I must feel for it myself. This story is eternally sad, so sad that reading it is not enough. Its hard to explain my feelings here. Its the same as watching Schindler's List. Such a terrible terrible thing happened in Germany during that time and I can only wish I was there. Knowing history is no the same as being there. I guess as a middle-class suburbanite college student, I have never found a time in my life which tested my soul. Slaughterhouse-5 is also a funny book, very satirical, and deeply symbolic of many things. Vonnegut has an uncanny knack for seeing things the way they really are. He is a no-nonsense (funny that I describe him this way, alot of his books are nonsensical in some manner) kind of guy. He is probably my favorite writer. His books often carry the same messages, heck, even the same characters, but he can fashion such an awe- inspiring tale from words. He highly underestimats himself, at least I think he does, and I feel his work is unappreciated in a way. A lot of people just don't get him. I think people like some of his work because its "cool" or "weird." Hopefully I'm wrong. Maybe I'm overestimating my own ability to judge the writer from his work. Well, I recommend this book to the fullest extent. I hope that I have convinced you of his work's emotion. Don't forget to analyze the story. Read into it, between the lines. See what the author has to say about war, humans, and life. Don't take the Tralfamadorians seriously. Don't take Billy Pilgrim's escapades for face-value. I see that other readers have missed his points. Please, if you aren't willing to invest alot of yourself into the novel, don't read it.

Rating:
Summary: Interesting
Review: The story of Billy Pilgrim as he views his life through a variety of time perspectives. He relives his terrible experiences in World War II and the Dresden firebombing. These experiences are contrasted with those of a idealistic alien race where there is peace. The writing style was unusual but engrossing.

Rating:
Summary: The eternal book
Review: As the Tralfamdorians, the omniscient space creatures who like to look at humans in cages, put it we never die, we live on forever in our moments. Certainly the Tralfamdorians were speaking of Slaughterhuse, which is made up entirely of those moments. This masterpiece which satarizes just about every element of human life truly magnifies Vonnegut's power. However bleak and disparing the messages are, this book should be read by every creature earth and beyond