Member Reviews

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  2 of 2 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 5 stars

  “I don't intend this as a negative criticism, but Vonnegut's novels are less individual, memorable works of art than links in a chain, an ongoing, endlessly looping conversation. The subject rarely changes, each book blends together in the memory, the details dissolve, and what one is left with is the palpable sense of the chief character throughout - Vonnegut himself, with his wonderful narrative voice, bracingly humane, skeptical, and wryly funny.
  
  "Slaughterhouse-Five" is the best of the novels. Perhaps the autobiographical truth, the eyewitness factor, helps give it a greater gravitas than his other work: it has more heft, crawls deeper under the skin. A scathing anti-war novel disguised as science fiction, a biting satire, and characteristically funny-sad. ”

  Tinky wrote this review Wednesday, December 5 2007. ( reply | permalink )
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  1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 5 stars

  “What a book. I've yet to read any of Vonnegut's other work (most notably Cat's Cradle), but this book -- despite its brevity -- is a truly rich text. Vonnegut drew heavily on his own experience as a POW in WW2 to depict the devastating bombing of Dresden by the Allied Forces; a shameful act that Slaughterhouse 5 does a great deal to preserve, proving that fiction is as powerful as history (if not more so).”

  Bhupash wrote this review Wednesday, May 7 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 5 stars

  “Slaughterhouse Five was the first Vonnegut novel I'd ever read. At the time, it was unlike anything I had ever I had ever read in my life and I got so into it that I read it all in one day, staying up till like three in the morning just to finish it.
  
  This book is a masterpiece. And while it expresses many cynical views about war and the silly things that humans do, it is also surprisingly sensitive and about the things that tend to get overlooked in life. Vonnegut tends to take a lot of things that the majority of people take seriously and render them into something ridiculous, while taking things that many of us do not consider beyond a mere short-lived thought and rendering them into issues that demand one's attention.
  
  One thing I have to thank Vonnegut for is his ability to make me laugh out loud at a book. This is one of his funniest books he's written and I couldn't believe how I'd find myself either chuckling at a single sentence or laughing hysterically. The humor in the book makes even the pensive and darker moments more worthwhile.
  
  I'm sure there are many themes to this book, some debatable. To me, I just think this is another installment of social commentary on the insanity of the human race. Sometimes it is hysterically funny, other times it is profoundly sad. But no matter what note the book ends on, you kind of walk away from this book feeling like a lot of weight has been taken off your shoulders. As if you just dumped a lot of guilty confessions onto your therapist and now you can go on feeling a little less guilty. But depending on how you view this book, you may walk away feeling more guilty than before.
  
  If you've never felt even a little bit of guilt for being human, you either won't appreciate this book at all or you desperately need to read this book. I've reread this book several times. It's refreshing each time I read it. And I've yet to read anything comparable to it since then. ”

  Gregory wrote this review Monday, March 3 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 4 stars

  “This is my first crack at Vonnegut, and I have to admit: I'm very impressed. Billy Pilgrim is a character that won't be forgotten. His uneasiness about Dresden is demonstrated through his inability to write the story about it. As I read, I was reminded of Elie Weisel's Night, another honest telling of World War II history. It'll take me another reading or two to give it a real, honest review.”

  jazzpatsytoo wrote this review Friday, January 25 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 0 stars

  “This is a much acclaimed novel by Kurt Vonnegut that is not a simple tale, but an intricate story of the life of Billy Pilgrim. Billy Pilgrim is a man who is "unstuck in time" meaning his timeline goes back and forth in atypical order. The novel takes an anti-war stance relayed through Pilgrim's witnessing the bombing of Dresden and surviving being a prisoner of war. He is trapped in a marriage, trapped into a career and has also been abducted by aliens from the planet Trafalmador. According to the Trafalmadorians all life is happening simultaneously. Billy Pilgrim lives his life out of order, he never knows where in his life he will next awaken. Vonnegut's character also relives the terrible times repeatedly, like many people caught in traumatic devastating times. There is an oft repeated line in this novel, "And so it goes." Knowing that Vonnegut was a Pacifist this line seems to demonstrate the ability to just accept whatever comes your way with no hesitation or ability to question. It is this characteristic that "traps" Billy Pilgrim in his marriage, his career and in a world filled with inequitable situations, he just accepts these things at face value, no more important or less important than any other. I know this is a modern classic, attaining cult status, but I am just not a Vonnegut fan. I am glad that I read it for the sheer experience of reading a classic. Obviously Vonnegut was a gifted writer with an innate ability to convey his thoughts, feelings and experiences through his many novels and he has a significant and devoted following, but he is just not for me.”

  jeanne-scott wrote this review Sunday, January 13 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 3 stars

  “An odd book that I'm not sure how I feel about. It was interesting, but hard to follow at some points.”

  holler wrote this review Wednesday, October 17 2007. ( reply | permalink )
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  1 of 1 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 4 stars

  “The full title of this Kirk Vonnegut novel is, you may remember from the list of books you were supposed to get around to reading, Slaughterhouse-Five; or, The Children’s Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death. I needed a break from pulp fantasy so I decided to tackle something more thought provoking.
  
  This is pretty obviously an anti-war book. The protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, is the world's worst soldier and witnesses the firebombing of Dresdin, a town in Germany of questionable military importance whose 130,000 mostly civilian inhabitants are obliterated in an Allied bombing towards the end of World War II. This event is the macabre centerpiece of Vonnegut's examination of war and how it obliterates lives and even free will.
  
  The book's other catch is that Billy Pilgrim is supposedly a time traveler who inadvertently slides back and forth along the time line of his life. He also describes how he was abducted by aliens and taken to an intergalactic zoo where he's mated with a beautiful movie star. The aliens teach Pilgrim that time is just another dimension, and that every moment --past present and future-- is inevitable and can actually be seen if you know how to look. If someone dies at one point in time, he's still alive in all the others, so it's no big deal.
  
  Vonnegut never directly addresses this issue, but it seems fairly evident to me that both the time travel and the alien view towards the same subject are just figments of Pilgrim's imagination that serve as coping mechanisms for what he saw in the war. If free will doesn't exist, tragedy isn't quite so tragic. If you can see the whole stretch of time in one's life laid out like a mountain range and visit any part of it whenever you want, death loses its bite. But like I said, it's left to the reader to decide.
  
  So, good book if a bit weird with all the dancing back and forth along the plot line as Pilgrim time travels. It's thought provoking, Vonnegut is a lyrical writer, and it's definitely worth a read. But if I were to compare it to other things I've read, I think I've read at least one book that better communicates the horror of war, and another one that better captures the absurdity. Oh, and I've read a better time travel one, too. Still, this one manages to do all three, and that's something.”

  jmadigan wrote this review Monday, July 16 2007. ( reply | view 1 replies | permalink )
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  1 of 2 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 3 stars

  “Slaughterhouse-Five is the first book by Vonnegut that I have read, and in some ways I feel like I missed out. Apparently some of the characters in this book were originally taken from his older works.
  
  Using time-travel as a device, Vonnegut tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, an optometrist who has come unstuck in time. He travels back and forward along a predetermined pathway, including such memorable moments as his death, his marriage, and the firebombing of Dresden, which he survived as a prisoner of war. While the sentiments of the book are clearly anti-war, Vonnegut's stance on free will confused me. Was he parodying determinism, or confirming it?
  
  I did really enjoy this book, but after reading it I’m not sure if it should be considered science fiction. I kept expecting to turn the corner in the narrative and be simply told that Billy Pilgrim wasn’t time traveling — instead he was just constantly recalling and reliving important moments in his life as all people do. Vonnegut never seemed to give me that easy answer though, which I suppose is one of the reasons this book is loved by so many. ^_^;
  ”

  Peach wrote this review Friday, April 18 2008. ( reply | permalink )
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  1 of 2 members found this review helpful.

  • Rated 5 stars

  “my first vonnegut believe it or not. what an amazing ride and a brilliant way to hand hold your mind through the tragedy of the bombing of dresden not to mention the trauma of war on the individual's psyche.”

  beetabonk wrote this review Wednesday, June 27 2007. ( reply | permalink )
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  • Rated 3 stars

  “This book is a feast of imagination, a winding stream of consciousness who’s main pathetic protagonist slips up and down his own lifespan (think of a double helix with slides between). I’ve never read anything like it. Vonnegut is defiantly a profound writer with a poet’s pen and a street philosopher’s pop. He might also be a brilliant artist-mathematician the way this story is puzzled together (ie Paul Klee’s paintings). He is defiantly a 60’s man’s-man with both a strong morbid and wildly humorous streak. Every time a guy dies in this excellent war satire (ie frequently) Vonnegut wraps with a nonchalant sign-off, “...and so it goes.” Disturbingly, I picture John Carson swinging a golf club after his punch line. Will I read Vonnegut again? I’m not sure. The book was a challenge and his slip stream plot line lost me several times. I enjoyed the experience, but might leave the rest of the body of his work for 60’s Antiwar Intellects. 10/5/08”

  Garcon wrote this review 19 hours ago. ( reply | permalink )