Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel
by Kurt Vonnegut
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Book Reviews of Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel
Book Review: I can see why it's a classic, but . . .
Summary: 3 Stars
Okay--so the juxtaposition of war, time travel, and alien abduction was certainly inventive, and Vonnegut's deadpan frankness in dealing with the book's subject matter would have been fairly revolutionary for the time. The book is also brilliantly structured--jumping from fragment to fragment of Billy Pilgrim's life with masterful control and timing--all without a boring or confusing moment. I can see why the book is considered a classic, and it's probably deserving of that label. I still didn't like it.
A label of which the book isn't deserving is "anti-war." I was surprised to see several reviews rhapsodize about Vonnegut's "screaming rage" against the absurdity and tragedy of war, so much so that I began to wonder if I had indeed read "Slaughterhouse-Five" and not some other acclaimed novel involving the Dresden firebombing and Tralfamadorians. If anything, the book is about accepting war and tragedy as part of life and trying to deal with it. The book is depressingly (and, after a while, rather annoyingly) blasé about death, no matter how horrible or unjust. Death by assassination? So it goes. Death by gangrene? So it goes. Death by torture? So it goes. Thousands killed in the firebombing of Dresden? So it goes. I realize that Vonnegut experienced the firebombing firsthand and that the subject is probably one of great personal importance to him--which only makes me wonder why the event isn't given any more emotional weight. The novel almost feels like an attempt by Vonnegut to ameliorate the tragedy, rather than to make any meaningful statement about it. Or maybe the amelioration is his statement. At any rate, I also missed the apparently abundant black humor. There is an almost overwhelming amount of tragedy within the novel's slim frame, with the only ray of "hope" being that, in the big picture, the life of the individual doesn't really matter anyway. If you find that notion funny, you'll probably pick up on the humor. And like the book.
As a side note, I found "The Wind-up Bird Chronicle" by Haruki Murakami, while wildly different in many aspects, to be oddly similar to "Slaughterhouse-Five" in both subject matter and in its juxtaposition of war brutality and fantasy. While Kurt Vonnegut undoubtedly displays a finer control of lanuage, I found Haruki Murakami's approach funnier, more affecting, more emotionally satisfying--and, if possible, even weirder.
Book Review: A discursive pile of sardonic cynicism
Summary: 4 Stars
A brilliant writer with a brilliant mind, indeed, nobody can appropriately qualify the magnanimity of Kurt Vonnegut's genius. Its made clear by his sardonic cynicism and unique voice that Vonnegut has things to say.
His powerful philosophy surfaces at times, letting linger lasting quotations, insightful and enigmatic like "everything was beautiful and nothing hurt." His work is like a written Picasso painting. The premise of the story is that Billy Pilgrim, an American drafted during World War II, becomes "unstuck in time". The structure is discursive as any other work of literature as Vonnegut pulls the reader randomly around different points in time during Billy's life. And what he lacks in perspicuity proves to be only a part of his unique art form, whether he intended it so or not.
That being said, I'm vexed as to why Vonnegut might choose to write about his interesting but incredibly farfetched perception of time instead of using what seems like a fine opportunity to express his disapproval of war, which is as incendiary as the firebombing of Dresden. I'm vexed as to why he would entertain such a digression from what I can only assume is his desired message.
Although he gets across a powerful message about the horrors of war in Slaughterhouse-Five, one can't help but wonder as they flip its pages why Vonnegut hasn't yet inundated them with his seemingly ebullient criticism of the human race in its current condition -because his feelings are just that; not a blasé observation made in passing, but a passionately morose disappointment at the pernicious nature of people.
Vonnegut tells the story of how Billy is abducted by a race of aliens called Tralfamadorians. They take him to their planet and display him in a zoo. Vonnegut uses the Tralfamadorians as a device to advance his time theory more than anything else, the conclusion of which is that people don't have to end, because time doesn't have to move forward. One can skip around moments in their life as if jumping to different points on a circle. Again, while intriguing, this motif is only tangentially relevant to Vonnegut's broader message. Maybe he isn't ready. Maybe he doesn't have the impetus. Vonnegut writes in an obliviously artistic manner, but I would have absolutely loved this book had he strongly supported a position based on his true convictions about the human condition.
Book Review: 40 Years Old and Still Very Worthy of a Read
Summary: 5 Stars
One of the best things I learned in college was the name Kurt Vonnegut. His voice is uniquely his own and always worthy of the investment in the time to listen to. Slaughterhouse Five definitely is a work that all should invest the time to read. Personally, I think it should be read a couple of times over one's life to understand the collective and individual ravages of war.
A favorite scene of mine in the movie Back to School is when Rodney Dangerfield tells Vonnegut in a cameo appearance that he doesn't know a thing about Vonnegut. This is why I love Slaughterhouse Five. There are so many concepts presented here that everyone will interpret the elements of the book differently.
- Does Billy Pilgrim time travel or is he trapped in his mind from the horrors he has experienced?
- Is his time travel a copping mechanism from the dismay of being a POW?
- Is war just to be accepted as a natural event that should be ignored as the Tralfamadorians do or should we not accepted it and fight against it because as humans with free will we have the inherent capabilities to stop it?
- Do we have free will?
- Are we a more dangerous a people with atomic weapons when we proved capable of killing 135,000 people in Dresden and 84,000 in Tokyo with fire-bombing while killing only 71,000 in Hiroshima with an atomic bomb?
- Who is worse, the soldiers who killed innocent people and turned their body fat into candles or those who boiled the soldiers innocent children in the fire-bombing of a safe-city? Is revenge sweet as Lazzaro implies? If so, why did he not revel in the bombing of Dresden?
- Why do we allow children to fight our wars?
The list of questions to contemplate from this book can go on and on.
Again, to me Slaughterhouse Five definitely is worth reading a few times over one's life. Billy Pilgrim, unremarkable Billy Pilgrim, is a character worthy of note in the annals of literature. The seamless presentation of a timeless, though disjointed, story of Billy's life is exceptional. Everyone will have their own interpretation of the themes. To paraphrase from the book, here is light opera being played by crippled human beings, more fools like ourselves.
[One quick negative point, I read the smaller sized Dell paperback, which had terrible typesetting.]
Book Review: Book Worth Reading Involving WWII
Summary: 4 Stars
I am a 17 year old who had the option of reading Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughter House-Five" as part of an assignment about novels based on World War I and World War II. The one thing that attracted me about this book was that the reviews on the back cover said it was full of great sarcastic humor and tells a tale making one realize that war is not needed in the world. One thing that I saw many times in other reviews about this book was its strong anti-war message that Vonnegut states in the text. This was one of the big negatives that I did not like very much about this book. The anti-war message was unclear and did not come across well to my point of view. It seemed to me that the book talked more about events leading up to the war and the events that followed the conclusion of the war. But this was only a small con among the many pros that I had for really liking and enjoying the book. For some basic background, "Slaughter House-Five" is about a man named Billy Pilgrim who becomes a soldier in WWII to fight for the United States Army in Germany. It talks about how he becomes "unstuck in time" and how Billy has very different encounters than the normal everyday person. Billy talks and experiences things with aliens called Tralfamadorians and he mentions how their beliefs are so much different than the earthlings. The book also talks greatly on the fire-bombing of Dresden and how Billy Pilgrim is a prisoner of war at the time and he talks about his survival experiences before and after the bombing. The interesting part about this book is that Kurt Vonnegut is talking about Billy Pilgrim's war experience but at times Vonnegut mentions things that have happened to him during the war because he was at the same Dresden bombing. "Slaughter House-Five" overall was a very interesting and descriptive book. I would highly recommend this to anyone interested in the subject of World War II because it is such a classic novel. Vonnegut's sarcastic humor just makes all of the events that Billy Pilgrim encounters more interesting and enjoyable. The author puts an odd twist on the subject of war and violence. Lastly, Vonnegut's structure of plot is an unethical method that jumps around from subject to subject but makes reading the book different and more fun than the normal style of writing. Please read this book because you will not regret it! So it goes.Book Review: So it goes.
Summary: 4 Stars
I didn't like "Breakfast Of Champions" one bit, so I was hesitant to read this. But thanks to this little giveaway table in my building lobby, I found this piece for free just waiting to be plucked. To be honest, what drew me in was that old timey paperback book smell. You just can't beat it.
Not what I was expecting. It's an anti-war tale with Billy Pilgrim as its very boring, troubled and certifiably insane protagonist. Billy acquires timetravel powers as a POW right before the firebombing of Dresden during World War One. With these powers, we are shipped around through the here, before and after of all things Billy Pilgrim. He starts off as a quiet outcast and pretty much stays that way throughout the ups and downs of his whirlwind life. Strange and withdrawn, he still manages to survive terrible experiences, make love to a movie star, meet his favorite author and marry into wealth.
Oh yeah...and get kidnapped by aliens.
When I call Billy insane, which he definitely is, I still do not imply that he doesn't actually have timetravel powers. No, that is never disputed as his future is presented before us in the ways he predicts. But he is surely out of his mind nonetheless. The price of acquiring this super power, maybe? Could be. He's just a lunatic who can surf through time. And that's my kind of book right there.
Vonnegut breezes through the piece with an air of sad humor, often narrating in first person, always witty and ironic. His catchphrase of "So it goes" when dealing with the topic of death or someone dying did eventually become maddeningly tedious and bored me to distraction, but he sometimes found creative anecdotes for which to build up the line, which I welcomed hungrily. A town gets bombed and so it goes. A fly gets swatted...so it goes.
It's a thoughtful little novel with a big message, not without many of the author's first-hand accounts of his own time as a prisoner of war alongside the fictional Billy Pilgrim. Some Vonnegut recurring characters pop up for novelty's sake and sometimes because they just need to be there. Some were memorable, others not so much. Either way, aside from Edgar's death being ridiculously anti-climactic when he was being built up into a real character, I have nothing to keep me from recommending this fine book.