Rating: 
Summary: not writing, slop, perhaps useful as toilet paper
Review: Kurt Vonnegut is not a writer. He is someone who was able, through his contacts with governmental money provided to academics in the 30s, to foist is sloppy, humourous(lacking actual literary ability) cheaply and dishonorably written work upon us. As a student I was forced to read this monster. His books are not writing, they are pure tom foolary. This book, lauded to be the capstone, the beggining for an exploration of his touted literary genious, is actually probably only useful as toilet paper.So it goes... Kurt Vonnegut uses this disgustingly cheap segway to work himself out of every situation. His book wastes pages and pages of precious ink talking about aliens and splicing in images of WWII. Its pure trash. Up their with Michal Moores "stupid White men".
Rating: 
Summary: Randomness that makes sense.
Review: "Slughterhouse-Five" was a little strange for my taste, however the message suits for real life in any time period. Even if you don't read it as anti-war propaganda (I didn't immediately connect with this theme), it applies just as much to peaceful times as times of conflict. Vonnegut's portrayal of death as a normal occurance is more striking to me than the anti-war theme, because he NEVER let's you forget about it. "So it goes" litters every page, and makes you see the death in ordinary situations that you probably wouldn't have thought about. Every time I saw "So it goes," I felt something drop in my stomach. Just what you want when you read...something that makes you feel. He also shows a creative way to synthesize the difference between time and space, a way to find some meaning in life, and a few subtle (sometimes not-so-subtle) jabs at what he believes is wrong with the American way of life. His method of doing it all was strange and sometimes confusing (why only 4 stars), but picking through the confusion you can come up with anew idea that Vonnegut hid in the rubble! Forgetting all of that, it was a funny book in its irrelevancy and randomness, and sad in the same exact manner. Maybe that's why it strikes a chord.
Rating: 
Summary: Excellent introduction to Vonnegut
Review: This was the first Vonnegut I've read and so far it's my favorite. I am amazed how Vonnegut can contrive wildly imaginative stories and tie them together in a meaningful way. Slaughterhouse-Five is a story about a story of a Billy Pilgrim who becomes unstuck in time and relives different moments of his life. At the surface it seems he is just suffering from delusions from his war experiences. But the narrator makes us believe he has discovered a 'truth' from the Tralfamadorians about the nature of time, that it is not linear like beads on a string but comprised of almost independent moments, and one could jump among them and perhaps see them backwards. Instead of making Billy crazy these ideas make him sympathetic, because they provide a different and beautiful way of looking at human issues of loss and regret. Vonnegut somehow combines an interesting story, drama, and subtle humor that you may not spot the first time around in a very readable novel.
Rating:
Summary: creative and intresting through-out
Review: The book is good to read in spare time. It is intertaining and has lots of changes. The author makes the reader change the thoughts in the book so often that it is simetimes hard to fallow. This book I would highly recomend to read.
Rating:
Summary: A brilliant & outrageous antiwar book
Review: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.,is a self-described "trafficker in climaxes and thrills and characterization and wonderful dialogue and suspense and confrontations." To this end, "Slaughterhouse-Five or the Children's Crusade: A Duty Dance With Death," is a brilliant and outrageous antiwar book about the catastrophic World War II fire bombing of Dresden, Germany. Vonnegut delivers serious messages coated in humor. For instance, early in the narrative he states that there is "nothing intelligent to say about a massacre." And then adds, "I have told my sons that they are not under any circumstances to take part in massacres, and that the news of massacres of enemies is not to fill them with satisfaction or glee." The author then drives his convictions home by clearly explaining, "I have also told them not to work for companies which make massacre machinery, and to express contempt for people who think we need machinery like that." This is a remarkable book. Vonnegut expresses his antiwar outrage with blistering humor. And by the way...Billy Pilgrim and the Tralfamadorians will leave you in stitches. So it goes. Bert Ruiz
Rating:
Summary: Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt
Review: I was never really impressed with the story line of this book, it was on line with what i'd expect from Kilgore Trout. But i couldn't put it down, have you ever heard a voice so beautiful that it dosen't matter what it sings just as long as it sings? this is how Vonnegut writes. He takes a cheesy Sci-Fi plot (by the way i love sci-fi) and makes one of the greatest pieces of literature to be written in the last 50 years
Rating:
Summary: An Excellent Collection of Gibberish
Review: The best word to describe this book is Excellent, capital E intentional. This book comes in a time of Vonnegut's writing career where he was both a great teacher and a great artist. This is a culmination of those teachings, put together in a uniquely artistic manner. The story is an anti-war exploration of the meaning of life. Rather, as the back covers proclaims, it is an odyssey through time. The main character, Billy Pilgrim, hops back and forth among his memories (in time) in an effort to put together the fractured reality which exists there. Along the way, Vonnegut creates resonances which make for superb reading. I don't think I overstate the case when I call it brilliant. Pilgrim, in this odyssey, finds that time does not proceed linearly, as we perceive it. Time merely is. If an event exists, it always exists since there is no past, present, nor future. Pilgrim learns this when he is abducted by aliens and taken to the planet Tralfamadore. Another tidbit he learns is that war is unavoidable. However, war doesn't exist in every moment in time, so the Tralfamadorians choose to visit those moments when there is no war. On one hand, this is an absurd statement for an anti-war book. If Pilgrim finds that war is inevitable, how are we to believe we can avoid situations like Dresden? I don't think this is Vonnegut's message, exactly. Tralfamadorians choose to spend their conscious time in moments when war isn't. Since we live linearly, we should likewise choose to exist in moments when there is no war. If we could, most of us would choose to spend our time in moments of peace. So perhaps war is inevitable, but we don't need to live through it right now. It's hard for me to imagine anyone who wouldn't like this book. I suppose if you were too young to understand, it may be unthrilling. Aside from that, you can assume that war hawks will dismiss it as gibberish, since Vonnegut does not portray war as glorious. As strange as it sounds, Vonnegut would probably call it gibberish too. An excellent book, even if it is gibberish.
Rating: 
Summary: Uncertain journey
Review: A symbolic meat locker kept Kurt Vonnegut alive during the fire bombing of Dresden in WWII, however, it seemed to kill his imaginative character Billy Pilgrim who he met there. The war left the protagonist, Billy, as a shell shocked victom whose imagination will take the reader on a joy ride through time and space. He displays many symptoms of an individual with mental issues, but the realistic interpretations of his time traveling and the adoption of new alienistic beliefs leave the reader with constant questions regarding his mental state. "Possibly, he may not be insane, maybe he is absolutely correct", are some of the things you may ask yourself when reading Kurt Vonneguts interesting novel. This book has facts throughout but, most of the book is Sci-fi and wierdly interpreted. Its a great book to just sit back and let your mind be open too....
Rating:
Summary: Good, but start with another Vonnegut first
Review: Vonnegut is without a doubt an excellent author. His novels, both shockingly tender and painfully cynical, compose a body of work that ranks among the best satire ever written. The problem with "Slaughterhouse-Five", however, is that it has received much more attention than it is due. It is one of the few books of Vonnegut's that I have read and felt disappointed with. Because this novel is promoted so heavily in university's and high schools, and a beloved of many critics, it is unpopular to criticize it. And while it is a strong argument against war, and marks a turning point in Vonnegut's writing, as well as being an early example of post-modernism, it simply isn't that satisfying a read. Perhaps it is because Pilgrim is a more difficult character to empathize with than Kilgore Trout or Eliot Rosewater, the protagonists in other novels who make an appearance in "Slaughterhouse-Five". It may also be that Vonnegut hasn't quite gotten his new style down pat, and so when he leaps from idea to idea and place to place it doesn't always seem to work quite right, the way it does in "Breakfast of Champions". Whatever the case, anyone interested in reading Vonnegut should almost certainly begin with "Cat's Cradle", and move outward from there. "Cat's Cradle" will show you Vonnegut at his best, and keep you hungry for more, even when you trip over the occasional novel like this one.
Rating:
Summary: Best Vonnegut book!!!
Review: This was my first Vonnegut book and is now my very favourite book of all time! It's humour and uniqueness make it almost impossible to put it down. When I got to the end of the book, I begged for more. The characters are so memorable. I still think of Billy Pilgrim and of course Montana Wildhack! The story is original and superb. I love Slaughterhouse-five!!! It's brilliant!!!
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