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Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
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Slaughterhouse-Five

by Kurt Vonnegut

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When your English teacher hands you a classic novel about the Second World War, the last thing you expect is a science fiction adventure involving time travel and a philosophical basis in determinism. This, however, is precisely what Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five is – a quirky, enjoyable and decidedly unexpected perspective on a very solemn subject. Even readers with little enough interest in history should find this book quite easy to enjoy – it is characterised not so much by its historical basis, but by its amusing and incisive comments about human behaviour. Its style is concise, witty and fluid, making it very easy to read. (It's good to see that not all classics have to be uphill slogs!)

To me, Slaughterhouse-Five is an example of everything science fiction should be. It presents an original and absorbing premise. It challenges the way we think about life. It pushes the philosophical boundaries of what we consider possible. It asks questions with answers too complex to comprehend. Through its exploration of the strange and unknown, it holds the mirror up to humanity, and makes us notice the things we take for granted. And perhaps most importantly, it does it all with skill, wit and creativity. Its attitude seems to resemble Douglas Adams' The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series, but with a little more meaning and a little less absurdity.

Although Slaughterhouse-Five may read with a veneer of light humour and contentment, however, the core message that Vonnegut presents is a bleak and passive one which I found quite unsatisfying. To his credit, he manages to portray it in a convincingly positive light, but when I stepped back and analysed it dispassionately, I began to dislike it for its fatalism. It might not alter the quality of the novel, but it may well compromise the enjoyment that some readers are able to extract from it.

Slaughterhouse-Five is the kind of novel that you can read in a few days, and then think about for a few months. Apart from younger readers, who may be put off by the sexual references, I would recommend this book to just about anyone. At only 157 pages, why not give it a go? The experience will be well worth your short while.
SamuelW | Jun 16, 2009 | 1 vote
The only thing I didn't like about it is the science fiction part of it. I liked the idea of how the aliens understood time and death but that was the only thing that interested me. It's a book I want to read again. ( )
kimbee | Jun 15, 2009 |  
Not a bad book about the war, but I feel like Catch 22 covered this territory a lot more successfully. Still, it's a pretty striking example of post-modern lit -- the experimental narrative still feels surprisingly fresh. ( )
donutgirl | Jun 10, 2009 |  
Vonnegut was Robbins before Robbins. So it goes.
paulcook | Jun 1, 2009 |  
Showing 1-5 of 138 (next | show all)
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It sounds crazy. It sounds like a fantastic last-ditch effort to make sense of a lunatic universe. But there is so much more to this book. It is very tough and very funny; it is sad and delightful; and it works. But is also very Vonnegut, which mean you'll either love it, or push it back in the science-fiction corner.
added by jlelliott | editThe New York Times (Mar 31, 1969)
 
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Canonical Title
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People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
The cattle are lowing,
the Baby awakes.
But the little Lord Jesus
No crying He makes.
Dedication
For Mary O'Hare and Gerhard Muller
First words
All this happened, more or less.
Todo esto sucedió, más o menos.
Quotations
"Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense from things she found in gift shops."
"There was a a soft drink bottle on the windowsill. Its label boasted that it contained no nourishment whatsoever."
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.
So it goes.
Listen:

Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
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Book description

Amazon.com (ISBN 0385333846, Paperback)

Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Don't let the ease of reading fool you--Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters..." Slaughterhouse-Five (taken from the name of the building where the POWs were held) is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch- 22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy--and humor.

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:02 -0400)

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