Slaughterhouse-Five

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Summary: Vonnegut shows us all how to come unstuck in time
Review: I read Slaughterhouse Five last week, a 16th birthday present from my parents. With it's amazing and disjointed journey through one man's simple life, Vonnegut illustrates how messy yet tied together all our lives are. Instead of a simple flashback that most anyone could use to give a character's backround, Vonnegut brings the readers along with Billy Pilgrim and we all come unstuck, now able to explore with limitless hind and foresight a full but not entirely perfect life. Anyone who reads this novel will interprete something different. The Tralfamadorian outlook on life and death affected me the most, while my friend appreciated more the historic backround of the once beautiful then ruined Dresden. Vonnegut helps us understand the futility of war and the sad, but not tragic side of death. WWII was truly a Children's Crusade. So it goes.

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Summary: Easily one of the most important books of this century
Review: What can one say about "Slaughterhouse 5" that hasn't already been analyzed to death before? Suffice to say, there is a reason this book is seen as a classic: its portrayal of the coldness of war, its time-warping style, Vonnegut's dark humor at an all-time cutting edge... If you have not been forced to read this book in a class, force yourself. If Vonnegut is remembered for one masterpiece, this will be it

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Summary: An Excellently Written Book That Does It's Job
Review: I just finished this book (For the second time) and I can not say enough about it! The total satire that pervaded every idea we cherish in America cannot help but to force you to take a step back and look at us and how we live. His casualness with attrocity, the comparisions between the chaos of World War II and the order of the Tralmafadoran's, the writings of Kilgore Trout... I cannot even begin to describe the complexities and though provoking ideas this book brought out in me! A must have

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Summary: Utterly Fascinatingly Horribly Great!
Review: Never have I read a book that has played upon my conflicting emotions in such a way as this. Do you laugh at Vonnegut's trademark humor--here in top form--or do you cry at the emotionless yet moving retelling of the horrors of war, culminating in the firebombing of Dresden in particular? Neither. This can elicit no singular emotional response, unless sheer awe is an emotion. Utterly fascinatingly horribly great

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Summary: An incredible, unbelievable book!
Review: I read this book as part of my 11th grade English class this year, and had been told for years to read it by my father. I couldn't put it down. The bitter satire, and the fact that Billy Pilgrim is such an average man made the book more than a good story. The time jumping didn't bother me in the least. Indeed, the whole book read like a true story. The style, which delivers the most gruesome happenings in a flat, emotionless way, is at the same time full of a criticism of American society and of war. Funny, isn't it, that Billy Pilgrim was happier in Dresden than in America!

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Summary: The Best Of The Best
Review: This is the finest book I have ever read. Humerous and sad in the same moment. It makes a statement about the author's experiences that can be applied to experiences in our own lives. The story is almost a satire with a writing style that cannot be improved upo

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Summary: Great book, very powerful.
Review: For anyone who needs a new outlook on life, this is the book for you. Vonnegut offers the reader a new way of thinking as well as an incredible account of historical fiction. I would recomend it to anyone

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Summary: read this book now
Review: This book is really stellar. It is funny, sad, and thought provoking all the time. The ideas of time it introduces give the entire reader a zen calm and a certain degree of hope, but is not sentimental.

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Summary: An outstanding account of WWII, in a human manor.
Review: Billy Pilgram has come unstuck in time. That is the first line of one of the most powerful anti-war book I have ever read. Vonnegut tells the story of Billy Pilgram, a POW in WWII, based on his own experience as the same. He approches this popular, and sometimes over writen topic with a refreshing, and most human manor. Vonnegut uses emotion rather than plain fact and humor rather than contempt. This book is a must read for anyone interested in the topic of WWII, but not only that, for anyone interested in excellent literature. This edition also includes an essay by Vonnegut himself discribing his own need to write this book and why he choose to write it in the way he has. This book has found it way into my own list of personal favorites, and I'm sure it will become that, or more for you

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Summary: An interesting life story of a man with hilarious problems
Review: I greatly admire Vonnegut for his use of transitions from time period to time period. At first, it was a little awkward, but the storyline became clearer and clearer as the connections are recognized by the reader.