Slaughterhouse-Five

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Summary: A message of solace for unsettled minds and civilizations
Review: This book probably is becoming more relevant in times like this where we need to think about why war exists and why it is so common between civilizations. If it's something that no one wants to happen then why does it happen so often. In the conflict with Iraq in the Spring of 2003 the opinions are split by two fervently polar sides. This book was written in the midst of the Vietnam War at the height of popular disapproval of ongoing death of troops and destruction of property which were lost for no apparent reason.

Vonnegut I thought took a good approach with the book's subject material. The book doesn't naturally talk about Vietnam which was naturally going to be admonished by one side and raved by the other or hating by both should the book be perceived as sitting on the fence. He drew from his experiences of war from the bombing of Dresden to described the relevant events of Billy Pilgrim's, the hapless main character's, life. The bombing of Dresden was the most devastating operation by the American forces upon a German city. But its not just this that makes the book good and its not just about the bombing in Dresden as the book spans the whole adult life of Pilgrim. From the start the book tells you that the book is written in a "schizophrenic" form that bounces Pilgrim back an forth through his life in the form of a stream of consciousness. As the character experiences a certain emotion or speaks upon a certain subject, he switches into a different point in his life where he's experienced (or will experience) something similar. This happens often within chapters and yet it is not confusing. Ironically you'll also come out with a sedate feeling if you understand the point of the author and the quotes from reviewer of the book will make more sense the next time you read them on the front and back cover after reading this book. The book was entertaining as well as memorable and philosophical. I include memorable because Vonnegut creates passages that talk about an idea or a thing and that idea or thing becomes a symbol for something. When the author recalls that iconographic idea its easy to understand the meaning of the passage and its these ideas that tie together the fabric of the plot. The philosophical part was simply the moral of the book about knowing the difference between what you can change and what you cannot and knowing what to do in either case.

I would recommend this book to college students and people who are uptight.

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Summary: Perfect voice for this book
Review: Ethan Hawke is a wonderful reader who captures the dreamlike quality of this novel. Extra-special is the interview with vonnegut at the end of the CD. Plus, this is an unabridged text - the only way to listen to classics on audio.

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Summary: Be very careful
Review: You may read this book and find it so funny and enjoyable that the underlying message will be missed. Which is ok bacause the true sign of a classic is a book you can return to and pull something new from it. That's the beauty of Slaughterhouse-five. There's no timeline. There's no strong characters. There isn't a bad guy. And the bombing of Dresden (which according to the author is the reason the book was written) lasts about a paragraph. And in the middle of all of this chaos and nothingness, Vonnegut still gives the reader something grab hold of and savor...again and again.

If you haven't read this book, this one is a 'must read'. Do yourself the favor.

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Summary: Do read this book
Review: Excellent book. Clever, funny, incisive. You should read this book. So I won't say any more.

Poo tee weet.

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Summary: Slaughter House Five
Review: This book was rather interesting. This being the first book I have read by Vonnegut, I wondered if this would be a difficult book to read or not. "Slaughterhouse Five" was a fairly easy book to read, no more difficult than most others were. The most difficult part of this book was following the story. The story is told through the memories of a day-dreamer. The story jumps around from topic to topic with the author popping in with his own insight every so often, much as the mind of the main character Billy.

The story of Billy Pilgrim twists and turns through experiences in his life that have greatly effected him, which you can see through out the book. Experiences such as the bombing of Dresden in 1945, a devastating plane crash, and other small but integral glimpses through out his past come back to haunt him in his daily life.
Coming in to this book I thought this was going to be a book about war, death, and other atrocities, but was I fooled. As you read this book, you can tell this is anything but a tale of war. The subject of war was a traumatizing and atrocious part of his life, which furtherd the feeble, and weakening mental state of the character.
While reading this book, I realized the lack of form in his writing and the spuratic thought paterns are used to futher illistrate the emense mental tolls on Billy`s mind.
To say I recommend this book is to say the least. The dynamics of this book take you through different emotional states, which help you relate to the character on a personel level as well as a phisical level.Although, the lack of form in his writing was new to me, it doesnt make the book any more dificult than most others. Since I have read this particular book from Vonnegut, I plan on reading more of his books to see if they are as interesting as this one.

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Summary: Slaughterhouse Five
Review: Wow! Is this guy like Tarantino's father or what? They are like the Luke Skywalker and Darth Vader of time. It was entertaining, but the majority of the time, I could not place the scenes in the correct order. It truly was like seeing Pulp Fiction for the first time. It was so bizarre that you end up watching it again. Only to find yourself questioning why you watched it the first time.
If Mr. Vonnegut wanted to hold my attention, he should have started the story on Tralfamadore. The beginning was so rough that my eyes had to be tied open with fishing line. The author paints a very gray picture of his own life only to dramatically spice up Billy's. When I first started to read it, I thought to myself, "This guy is ripping off every movie I have ever seen about time travel." Then I realized that this book was written a little bit before my time. Maybe all of those writers were fans, or maybe Vonnegut traveled through time and became a fan of theirs. After reading this book, I also began to question my own sanity.
Billy Pilgrim, what a name. Billy, your, "average Joe," embarking on a pilgrimage through the years of his life in what ever order he chooses. And Montana? Come on, only two things could be as big as the state of Montana on a porn star and neither of those two are ever her imagination. Mr. Vonnegut's, on the other hand is truly unbelievable. I am sure that in a café in heaven, gentlemen like Rod Sterling and Leonard Nimoy are holding their breath and waiting to share a cup of holy coffee with him.
I suppose the best way to describe this book without offending any war veterans or stepping on the toes of any Klingons. Is to say if M*A*S*H and Star Trek could somehow have a baby, it would be Slaughterhouse-five.

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Summary: Slaughterhouse five
Review: Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut is not one of my favorite books. This is the only book by Kurt that I have read. Slaughterhouse Five was very confusing and hard to follow. The structure of the novel is totally unconventional and does not really have a clear beginning, middle and end. The main character in this book is Billy Pilgrim, who is able to time travel. One minute you are in present time and the next you are back in World War Two with no notice at all. Besides that total lack of a time unity, there is no unity of place. The setting jumps rapidly and repeatedly between war and the planet Trafalmadore. These are reasons that the book was hard to follow. Also, the fact he was abducted by aliens seem ridiculous to me. A large part of this book is in third person; there is also first person narration in the first chapter when Vonnegut enters the novel as commentator/character. He is present in the first and tenth chapter. This switch of narration further adds to the confusion.
The one thing I liked about this book was the fact it didn't glorify war. It told what I think are true stores from World War Two. It told the sad truth of war, the things that go on and never are talked about. A major focus of the book is on the horror of the bombing of Dresden. This event is first described in the opening chapter, although details are found throughout the book. This book is truly an anti-war book.

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Summary: Vonnegut At His Best
Review: The title Slaughterhouse Five, sounds like a cheesy horror movie, but you could never guess this story involves World War II, an American soldier, and time travel to a out of this world planet named Tralfalmadore. Slaughterhouse Five is a fiction novel based on historical fact. The life story of the main character, Billy Pilgrim, unfolds throughout flashbacks and brief flash-forwards. Billy is a clumsy American soldier in World War II who becomes separated from his unit. He moves along with three other American soldiers, until they are captured by the Germans. They are then taken to the doomed city of Dresden, Germany and held captive in the slaughterhouses. Billy was in "slaughterhouse number five," where the novel gets its name. A week after their capture, Dresden is bombed by the Americans and the city is completely destroyed, but Billy survives physically, but not mentally. Due to the effects of the terrible war, Billy's mind has been seriously altered. He claims to have visited a distant planet called Tralfalmadore, in the fourth dimension. As result of these visits, Billy is now able to travel through time. It is clear Billy Pilgrim is a very changed man from the effects of the war, but it is up to you the reader to decide whether Billy has simply gone insane, or whether he has been day dreaming the whole time. This novel is a great mix of historical fact and far off fiction, with a light touch of science fiction and a lot of twisted humor. The author, Vonnegut was an American soldier held prisoner in the Dresden slaughterhouses during World War II, so the descriptions are truthfully vivid. The only bad thing is that the time travel makes the story hard to follow but, after reading it you will have a different picture of what a war is like and what it can do to you physically and mentally.

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Summary: Underrated and Overlooked
Review: After reading Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five, I found myself wishing I had read it long ago and not waited so long. I had heard mixed reviews, a lot of negatives, and never decided to find out for myself until this year.

While the book has been reviewed as both a comedy and a tragedy, I could not help but feel pain throughout the book, pain for Billy mostly, but pain for the human race.

Vonnegut seems to know our faults, including his own, and exploits them in such a way that we are faced with a horrible image of how we treat one another, even in a time of tragedy. We seem blind to others pain and focus solely on our own, and Vonnegut has something to say about that. He introduces us to a character, both pathetic and not, stronger perhaps than most people, someone that would be and has been kicked around. What makes Billy Pilgrim a hero in my eyes is not his plight, but his tremendous ability to survive, to find happiness in memories of what seems like a miserable life, from his overweight wife to his experieces during WWII.

We can learn much from Billy about our own lives, about finding happiness where it seems unavailable, about how we should treat one another. This lesson alone helps keep this book on my list of favorite books of all time.

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Summary: So it goes
Review: I have never read anything by Kurt Vonnegut before and thought I should read this book. I cannot say that I found this book to be "enrapturing" or "dull." It sort of fell in the middle. So it goes. Vonnegut's writing style is light and quick-paced, which helped me finish it very quickly and he had very unusual subplots going on all the time. I like the aspect of time and the lack of chronology in the book. As muddled as the timeline is, I can't say I found it confusing.

I would have to say that Catch 22 in many ways was better. I compare it to Catch 22 because both are about WWII and both are satirical in nature, being anti-war books. I didn't especially like Catch 22, but the sense of an underlying theme was stronger than in this book. All Vonnegut was trying to do in this book (as I see it) was to make people see the ridiculousness of war and do so by treating it lightly. He makes many things that are important (like death) more trivial. So it goes. I don't mind this, but it got boring after a while. I like light books that aren't overly dense about things this touchy, but because of it I can't call this book a masterpiece. It is hard for me to take a book too seriously that doesn't take its subject matter that seriously.

Interesting read, though. So it goes.