Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel by Kurt Vonnegut
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Book Reviews of Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel
Book Review: Bloody good book.
Summary: 5 Stars
One of those books where after you read it you look at your copy and wonder how something of such power could be put on paper. Through Billy Pilgrim's experience with the aliens of Tralfamadore which take the reader to-and-fro various parts of Billy's life, you'll see that this book isn't so much about war but about how life gets caught up in war. Very offbeat book with loads of great parts, both sad and funny. Through Billy Pilgrim, an unfit soldier who had a horrible and embarrasing experience in WWII, Vonnegut paints a keen portrait of life. Like all Vonnegut books, this one has a load of great characters, including my favorite Vonnegut character Kilgore Trout (you gotta love his stories). Many of the characters are startlingly close to life. Soom good and some bad. Some make you see how rotten people can be, others make you see how wonderful (I know far too many Paul Lazzaros and far too few Elliot Rosewaters).
When Vonnegut writes from a first-person point of view, the character is narrating, and that's all there is to it. But when Vonnegut writes from a third-person point of view, it's not just narrated, Vonnegut makes sure you know that he himself is narrating, and he's writing this book. This book is third-person, and (as in Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions) Kurt shows up in the pages. It really works well with this one. It cements this book's sense of reality when it could so easily float away (the plot does, after all, hinge around aliens in flying saucers).
Book Review: Poo-tee-weet
Summary: 5 Stars
That the victims of the Dresden firebombing were, by and large, innocentbystanders caught in the cogs of a grisly machine called 'war' is irrefutable.
That a man named Kurt Vonnegut was there, witnessed it from the ground-level
(and below), and carried the psychological burden of it around with him for
years is obvious. That he was able to write such a brilliant book on such a
dark subject is, quite frankly, amazing.
On the surface, `Slaughterhouse-Five' deals with the trials and tribulations of
one Billy Pilgrim, ophthalmologist and erstwhile WWII chaplain's assistant,
whose life is apparently filled with more death and destruction than his mind
has the capacity for. At least, that's what his daughter thinks when Billy
starts behaving erratically. Little does she know that he has become unstuck
in time, experiencing his life in a random, non-linear fashion forever. Since
Billy has no way of knowing what will come next, all he can do is enjoy the
good moments when they come, and deal with the bad as best he can.
Who can make sense of a life like that?
And in a larger sense Mr. Vonnegut asks us, who can make sense of a world where
people blow each other to bits for arbitrary reasons? What is there to say?
It really is for the birds: poo-tee-weet.
Truly a masterpiece of 20th-century literature. Should be required reading for
every high-school student.
Book Review: Quick 20th Century Classic
Summary: 5 Stars
I greatly enjoyed this book and thought it posited an interesting theme; that time, at least the way most of us conceptualize it, does not actually exist.
Vonnegut presents this idea through the experiences of the main character, Billy Pilgrim, who is said to have become "unstuck in time." Throughout the book, Billy's present surroundings constantly fluctuate between his past, present, and future self (or selves). He also spends time on the planet Tralfamadore, where the inhabitants see time in four dimensions, accept their futures as unchangeable (because they've already seen them), and are aghast when Billy questions them about free will.
Consequently, Billy develops a fatalistic irreverence towards life and shrugs off seemingly catastrophic events with an attitude wholly captured by Vonnegut's go-to phrase "so it goes." To the reader, his attitude is often very humorous, particularly when it's juxtaposed against the worrywort nature of other characters.
Initially, one assumes this form of nihilism is a shot against religion; however, to Christians adhering to a Lutheran, and to a greater extent Calvinistic, interpretation of predestination and free will, Vonnegut's them isn't so bizarre. In fact, it may even be a challenge to those Christians to live like the Tralfamadorians, free of worry and anxiety because they too already know their fate.
Cool book. Highly recommend.
Book Review: Quirky and entertaining
Summary: 5 Stars
This was my first Kurt Vonnegut book. It took perhaps 50 pages for me to get into his unique style of writing. I did not particularly enjoyed it at first. I was especially annoyed by the constant use of the phrase, "so it goes". But once I decided to go with the unusual style and writing I began to enjoy it a lot. The story follows the life of a WWII veteran. and jumps through time (past, present and future) constantly. Time lines are not separated by chapters and within one page, time jumps around several times. To make it more interesting the protagonist believes (or maybe he really was, but I believe it is not important whether he really was) that he was abducted by people from another planet and that he can travel through time. The reader can interpret this part as science fiction or merely that the protagonist is mentally ill. Vonnegut describes his life on the other planet, where he is in a zoo. Despite what sounds like a complex plot, the story is surprisingly easy to follow and delightful.
The author admits that he intended to write an anti-war book. Through comedy and the story's unique characters, he delivers an entertaining book that will leave you with a lot to think about. The craziness of the story parallels the craziness of war. I highly recommend it and even if you don't end up liking the book, it will be a short time investment. It took me about a day to get through it.
Book Review: "So it goes....."
Summary: 5 Stars
Slaughterhouse Five is the sad tale of Allied firebombing of Dresden, Germany during the Second World War. The Dresden bombing caused nearly the same number of deaths as the atomic bomb that was dropped on Hiroshima.
This novel is based on Kurt Vonnegut's own war experience and took him over two decades to finish it. Vonnegut is actually present as one of the characters; he was the constant cynical narrator who makes all deaths equivalent with his comment:" so it goes".
Interestingly, the novel was published during the Vietnam War, a war where technology was again used against nonmilitary targets in an unjust war.
Through the protagonist Billy Pilgrim, we are taken on a sad journey through the scarring traumatic horrors that war inflicts on both sides for generations to follow.
Sarcastically, Vonnegut used the Tralfamadorians, who are aliens shaped as toilet plungers, to demonstrate the linear progression of time as opposed to all moments existing simultaneously. Through the Tralfamadorians, free will is also presented as the ultimate illusion; Beginning with Billy's childhood, free will is a repeated theme throughout the novel.
Slaughterhouse-five, a remarkable novel that condemns war along with any bureaucratic attitudes that attempt to glorify war and its heroes, while ignoring its destructiveness and horrors.