Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel

Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel
by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel
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Book Summary Information

Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Edition: Paperback
Audio: English (Original Language); English (Unknown); English (Published)
Published: 1999-01-12
ISBN: 0385333846
Number of pages: 288
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
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Book Reviews of Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel

Book Review: Fate or Free Will?
Summary: 5 Stars

Slaughterhouse Five is a novel that at its core is about the very meaning of human existence. Are we merely going through the motions of life, or do we control our destinies?
The novel's protagonist is Billy pilgrim, whose metaphorical name gives insight into his journey. Billy Pilgrim goes through life; he does not participate in it. Billy believes that all action is preordained, and thus he lets life happen to him. Yet despite this pathetic choice, Billy is an everyman worth rooting for. He is content with his lot, even if we the readers are not content with his passivity.
Like the best novels, S5 lets the reader choose what is the right thing, and allows more than one side to every issue. Vonnegut has managed to write a book about war, human nature, natural selection, religious belief, death, history, and the value of choice in one's life. He tackles these plethoras of themes in a novel that encapsulates time travel, aliens, WW II, and the humdrum of middle class life. Now that is a feat.
And the greatest thing about this novel is that every read yields new insights and lessons. Its themes are vast, and its pleasures continue to grow.
Read and think and you will not be disappointed!

Summary of Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel

Launched in November, Dell's Kurt Vonnegut reissue program continues with one of the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.
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.

Vonnegut Jr., Kurt Books

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