Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #34538 in Books
• Published on: 1998-10-06
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 215 pages

Amazon.co.uk Review
It took Vonnegut more than 20 years to put his Dresden experiences into words. He explained, "there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again." Slaughterhouse Five is a powerful novel incorporating a number of genres. Only those who have fought in wars can say whether it represents the experience well. However, what the novel does do is invite the reader to look at the absurdity of war. Human versus human, hedonist politicians pressing buttons and ordering millions to their deaths all for ideologies many cannot even comprehend. Flicking between the US, 1940's Germany and Tralfamadore, Vonnegut's semi- autobiographical protagonist Billy Pilgrim finds himself very lost. One minute he is being viewed as a specimen in a Tralfamadorian Zoo, the next he is wandering a post-apocalyptic city looking for corpses. Slaughterhouse Five-Or The Children's Crusade A Duty-Dance with Death is a remarkable blend of black humour, irony, the truth and the absurd. The author regards his work a "failure", millions of readers do not. Released the same time bombs were falling on South East Asia, this title caused controversy and awakening. Essential reading for all. So it goes. --Jon Smith

Synopsis
Billy Pilgrim survives capture by the Gemans in World War II, the Dresden bombings, and the struggle for financial success only to be kidnapped in a flying saucer and taken to the planet Tralfamadore.

Customer Reviews

Billy Pilgrim shows us the way in this grrrrrrreat book!
Read this decades ago when Vonnegut was THE thing. SLAUGHTERHOUSE FIVE was our talisman in school, right along with CATCHER IN THE RYE and about ten other books. We loved this guy for his absurdist comedy and knowing look at the human condition. Occasionally Vonnegut's works will be so "real" that you think he's just giving you a take on a slice of life, but with S5, time becomes a major player in this tale of angst, social malfunction, and Tralfamadorians. The only book I liked better was BREAKFAST FOR CHAMPIONS and the great quirky novel KATZENJAMMER by McCrae which flew off the shelves in America when it first came out. S5 is Black comedy at its finest. Can't go wrong with this one.

A true literary classic
Kurt Vonnegut has produced an extraordinary account of a young soldier by the name of Billy Pilgrim, as he faces the disaster of the Dresden bombing in the second world war. Vonnegut's approach to this account sees Billy Pilgrim travel through time as he experiences many of his life roles both before and after the bombing, as we are taken on a journey through Billy's life. Vonnegut's style is both witty and serious, making Slaughterhouse 5 an entertaining read whilst truly bringing home the horrors of war. If you are particularly interested in war literature, Slaughterhouse 5 is a must.

Just brilliant
I read Slaughterhouse-Five three times and enjoyed every part of it those moments that I occupied myself with the book. Vonnegut is an amazing writer, so creative, brilliant, clever and witty that some of his words are difficult to forget. This was the first book I read by Kurt Vonnegut, and it was recommended to me by a friend. While I was reading it the first time, I tried to understand why it had become so much of a talked about read. At the end of it, I understood.

As someone who witnessed the Dresden bombing, the author portrayed his insight of war through the character of Billy Pilgrim, who was serving the US army during World War II a private. It is a fantastic anti-war book, or more a book with a sobering effect on war mongers. The overwhelming destruction of picturesque and artistic Dresden, by Allied bombers is at the centre of the book. The alien part of it was marvelous.

This book is easy to understand, the setting is great and the pace is fast, confirmed by the fact that I lost my attention for a minute while reading the book until the last words. This is a book to recommend to any reader who accepts the realities of life.

I also recommend DISCIPLES OF FORTUNE, ALL QUIET ON THE WESTERN FRONT