Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel
by Kurt Vonnegut
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Book Reviews of Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel
Book Review: One of the greatest books ever written.
Summary: 5 Stars
I'll admit, I'm not much of a reader (until fairly recently). Lately I've been on a sci-fi kick and somebody at my work recommended this book, Slaughterhouse Five. Originally it sounded more like I was jumping into the middle of a series of cheesy horror books but after minimal research I learned a bit more about the plot.
This book follows a man named Billy Pilgrim. Billy is a unique character, a man of few words. He reminds me a bit of Forrest Gump. Billy has a special ability, he can travel through time, through different parts of his life - though he is unable to do it intentionally. It just happens. Occasionally he travels to Tralfamadore, a planet many light years away. Here he is in a zoo, behind bars. Though the Tralfamadorians like to observe Billy, they also give him sound advice.
Billy was behind German lines during the Battle of the Buldge when he was taken prisoner and placed in a slaughterhouse (hence the name of the book). Billy witnesses one of the most horrific events in recorded history, the attack on Dresden. Though we learn of this attack we also learn about Billys life as a whole, such as his wife that loves him much more than he seems to love her.
Okay, I have to admit something else - when I first started reading this book I didn't know much about Vonnegut. I didn't know of his history. About 30 pages in I started noticing something... even though the writing style is simple (and brilliant I might add) I was able to pick up that this book really meant something to the author. I know he talks about his experience in the first chapter, I still wasn't sure originally if that was fiction or not. I started doing some more research on Vonnegut and I learned that it was in fact a fact. Vonnegut really did witness many horrors in his life including the attack on Dresden. Suddenly this book really started to make sense.
Sure, this book can be classified as sci-fi but there are a lot of truths in there. Vonnegut is a master at the metaphor and you learn that he uses sci-fi as a vehicle for something much greater. This book is simple, yet incredibly brilliant and much deeper then it first seems. It's amazing how much imagery Vonnegut can pack into a single sentence of simple words. I've read books that communicate a lot less with many more words.
Book Review: A weirdly awesome book.
Summary: 5 Stars
I realized that I'm probably one of the many ignorant kids of my generation who have been too busy to pick up a book by this author, so this is officially my introduction to Kurt Vonnegut. So it goes.
I admit that my venture into reading a Vonnegut book was triggered by my curiosity, yet again, after reading a lot of positive, even gushing, reviews about most of his books. For a book that's dealing with the horror and gore of war conflated with issues of time travel and alien abduction, it is so incredibly well-written. He describes the events so matter-of-factly that descriptions of corpses and human waste don't throw you off. Instead, you keep on reading. He writes with a certain level of humor washed with sarcasm that makes you appreciate the experiences that's being presented to you without feeling any kind of disgust.
Billy Pilgrim becomes `unstuck in time' after a plane crash. The story takes you back and forth to different points in Billy's life--from his experiences pre- and post-war. The novel also has some science fiction elements with regards to Billy getting abducted by the aliens from the planet of Tralfamadore. His daughter refuses to believe him and instead takes it as one of the many signs of his deteriorating health. The Tralfamadorians teach him about seeing life in the fourth dimension. They believe that their body never truly dies and that it continues to exist in other times and places when it was still alive.
"I am a Tralfamadorian, seeing all time as you might see a stretch of the Rocky Mountains. All time is all time. It does not change. It does not lend itself to warnings or explanations. It simply is."
It may sound like a weird book and it is, but it also heartrendingly humanistic. The truth is, this book reminded me of J. D. Salinger's "The Catcher in The Rye". The experience as a whole felt familiar and the difference is that, I enjoyed this book a lot more than the other. Don't get me wrong. The similarity lies in the writing style and how Billy Pilgrim reminded me so much of Holden Caulfield, but that's about it. This book stands on its own, definitely. So does Salinger's "The Catcher in The Rye". I'm re-reading both in the near future because they are the kind of books that call for a second or third visit.
Book Review: Not just a fantasy
Summary: 5 Stars
Where to begin? I feel that many of the reviewers have already captured the essence of this novel, but I also feel compelled to add to it.. after all, how can one not?
Typically, I have not been a fan of science fiction/fantasy books, but let me assure those of you who have not yet read this due to its label, it is far beyond and separated from novels in such a genre. I had heard of Kurt Vonnegut, but much to my present dismay, had distanced my literary choices from his work. That has forever changed.
"Billy Pilgram" has left an impression on me that I may not be able to properly describe. He is painted to be such a simple and almost uneventful character, that you'd imagine this person to bore you to tears. However, you will learn that his life is far from simplicity and holds the burdens of heartbreak, insanity (or perhaps, just an overactive imagination that bleeds into his human character?), tolerance of negativities, and nonchalanticity (if I may create a word here), that entices the reader to feel those emotions as if their own. Billy Pilgram does not ever seem to be confused, regardless of his travels through time and the experiences he is driven to live. He is comfortable with what he is presented with, most likely due to the fact that he learns about fate and its inevitability. You'll find yourself questioning your previous interpretation on time, war, imagination/dreams, love...
Although, coined into an anti-war mindset, it is not a novel that attempts to draw you into any specific stance. That aspect alone, is masterfully done. I wish authors of current affairs would be able to so delicately yet so simply describe their feelings without judgment, persuasion, or controversy.
This tale will make you smile, laugh, frown, scratch your head.. The Works. You'll be pulled into another planet, a war, a marriage... and may come to the conclusion that time is what we make of it. It's an entity that we both take for granted and still ponder upon what to do with it. Fate, destiny, they are much larger than our ability to control, and often times, fighting it or attempting to counteract it, will only yield the same result in the end, after all. And so it goes. ;-)
Book Review: I just finished it.. Well.. It was okay..
Summary: 3 Stars
I've had an interest for awhile in reading this book by Kurt Vonnegut Slaughterhouse Five. I don't know exactly what drew me to this book but I think the title was a big part of it.. it just sounds like a really cool book.. This is the first book that I have read by Kurt Vonnegut and since he just passed away recently I thought there was no better time then to read something by him.. and I had Slaughterhouse Five on my shelf..
Slaughterhouse Five well what can I say.. Honestly I didn't really understand alot of this book.. not alot of it clicked.. it seemed like it was scattered all over the place to where it was very hard to follow exactly what was going on.. The whole idea that I picked up in this book is a mind that is unstable in the state of war.. it's hard to think clearly and be straight in a time when war breaks loose.. and maybe that was the intent on why it was written in this type of way.. so you can see what happens to the human mind when war occurs..
"The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present, and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamodorians can look at all the different moments just the way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever."
"When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad conidition in that particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments, Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians says about dead people, which is 'So it goes.'"
I'm pretty sure this is the type of book that needs to be reread in order to really sink it in.. and since I have just read it once.. maybe that's a reason why it just didn't do much for me.. And so it goes..
Justin
Book Review: To the End of Time and Back Again: Slaughterhouse
Summary: 4 Stars
Slaughterhouse-Five is an epic journey through time, space, and the human mind. On this journey the reader follows an unlikely hero, Billy Pilgrim, through his travels from Dresden to an alien planet, Tralfmadore, and back again--in no particular order. The events of the novel--though seemingly random--give an insight into the meaning of war, and the human experience. Though it is an antiwar novel, and is about the bombing of Dresden--one of the worst, if not the worst, bombings in history--it has a lighthearted tone, and does not really focus on the events of the bombing itself. The protagonist was actually underground during the bombings, and the reader only really sees the after-effects. Vonnegut's antiwar sentiment is not found in gruesome details of the horrors of war, but in the way he presents his views on choices and fate.
Billy learns--while on Tralfmadore--that time is not what he thinks it is, and that humans are, in a sense, timeless. Therefore, because time does not have a hold on people, what happens is decided more by fate than any choices they make. This presents an interesting viewpoint for a novel about war. It makes the reader wonder about the meaning of death, and war. If people would have been able to see the horror of the bombing of Dresden beforehand, does that mean that they would have done anything, or could have done anything to stop it? In this light, the question faced is, what then is the purpose of killing? If it truly means nothing, then why is it done? The author says that massacre's are meaningless, and then conveys this through his views on humanity in an interesting and incredibly intriguing style.
Reading the novel, Vonnegut seems to be throwing ideas and concepts randomly at the pages. It is difficult to follow, and needs to be really thought about to understand (I'm not even sure if I still understand it). The beauty of the message of the novel is found in so many strange details that do not seem to connect, but that somehow create a web of intertwining ideas and messages that, when looked at from afar, creates a picture of war as it truly relates to the human experience.