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| Slaughterhouse-Five | 
 enlarge | Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $7.90
You Save: $6.10 (44%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $5.17
Avg. Customer Rating:  (696 reviews)
Sales Rank: 307
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 288
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 7.9 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0385333846
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780385333849
ASIN: 0385333846
Publication Date: January 12, 1999
Release Date: January 12, 1999
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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| Customer Reviews:
 Vintage Science Fiction June 11, 2008
This is Kurt Vonnegut's Masterpiece. It achieves everything that good science fiction aspires to achieve. The world of Billy Pilgrim is not to be missed. This definitely has to be one of the greatest science fiction books ever written if not it is in the top 10.
John
Poo-tee-weet June 10, 2008
Straightforward Fantasy of Baffling Reality
Billy Pilgrim has been unstuck in time, and I feel that way too. Through my English class, the whole contemporary style threw me completely off. This is not Dickens. This is not Steinbeck either. The closest I've read before is James Joyce, but I had no clue what he was saying. The similarity: half my brain cells died reading either book.
So it goes. However, this book is not going to be like any other war book you've
ever read-besides the usage of drugs as a plot device. This story has one of many interpretations. I am certain I have overanalyzed this book over and over again, but this is what I feel about the book.
The first is the easiest to explain and understand. Kurt Vonnegut is crazy and disillusioned after the onset of a terrible war including the hellish bombing of Dresden during World War II. This could easily explain for the random twists, plot spins, alien abductions, etc. However, this seems too simple an explanation.
Another explanation is an extremely deep one: the characters in the story are intended to be completely sane, and the book is not as much an antiwar novel as much as an analysis on free will. The narrator includes countless allusions to this argument, starting when Vonnegut compares stopping a war to stopping a glacier, to when the Trafamadoreans tell Billy Pilgrim that free will does not exist, to Billy getting thrown into the deep end of a pool. Billy is being taught the "sink or swim" method by his dad, but is rescued "against his free will" when they find out that he actually likes the bottom of the pool.
At this point, I cannot say that I have made a thorough analysis. I have practically nothing good to say. Perhaps the only thing I have left to say is "poo-tee-weet?"
 Slaughterhouse 5 Criticism June 10, 2008
0 out of 2 found this review helpful
June 9, 2008
Criticism on Slaughterhouse 5
Slaughterhouse 5, by Kurt Vonnegut, describes the unpredictability of life, as well as the inability to control it. The main character of the book, Billy Pilgrim, goes on many different adventures, some at home, and some on other planets several quadrillions of miles away from earth. Many lessons are taught in the book, some which certain people may disagree with. Among these are ideas that cannot be controlled, and the future cannot be altered by your decisions. Another suggestion is that death is not a large thing to worry about, as one can remember the good parts of someone's life, not just how they are now. However, these lessons have the potential to be disregarded by people who believe otherwise, if they are not already.
An interesting aspect of the book is that it is written in a format similar to the described Tralfamadorian format in the book. Several small passages make up the majority of the book, which alludes to the way the inhabitants of planet Tralfamadore format their books. Their books are meant to contain many short, happy memories that can all be viewed at once to form a single image of contentment. However, not all of the scenes in this book may be viewed as joyful. Plenty morose sections counter the good in this book.
The repetition of "so it goes" (1) in this book is unique and confusing. Usually it follows a mention of death, therefore following the main theme of life being uncontrollable, but is absent at certain instances, such as the death of Russians. This may be because the author doesn't like this group of people for some reason, or it may just be one of the many cases of disrespect in this book.
This novel has many inappropriate aspects as well. Wikipedia commented that "Because of its realistic and frequent depiction of swearing by American soldiers, its irreverent language (including the sentence `The gun made a ripping sound like the opening of the zipper on the fly of God Almighty,') and some sexually explicit content, Slaughterhouse-Five is among the most frequently banned works in American literature, and in some cases is still removed from school libraries and curricula." (2) This is true, as many swear words were often repeated, and coupled with pornographic content at the end of chapter nine, this book may not be recommended to some audiences. Not to mention the fact that the repetition of this content distracts from the meaning found in this novel. However, any alterations to create a censored book would drastically alter the plot, so unfortunately it is hard to avoid this content if one wishes to read the novel.
In conclusion, Slaughterhouse 5 is a unique book with many hidden details that this criticism just touched the surface of, though it may not be recommended to some audiences. Vonnegut has created another novel that matches his style exactly.
(1) Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut
(2) Wikipedia Search "Slaughterhouse 5"
 random June 7, 2008
I can almost imagine the author sitting at his typewriter, his wallpaper outline in yellow crayon tacked on the wall, typing a line at a time--all the while wondering if this book would ever be finished.
Because that is how it reads. It's random, with moments of brilliance. The first and last chapters were actually intro and epilogue, while Chapters 2 and beyond were the real "story". Characters may or may not play a part. A frozen hobo is a stark image, but what does it mean? Words and colors are interwoven - beginning with breath that reeks like mustard gas and roses, only to find it again in an underground tomb in Dresden. Like I said, brilliant--but random.
I read it twice, and liked it better the second time.
The Genius of Reverse Psychology June 7, 2008
Set during World War II, Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five is a humorous antiwar book. Billy Pilgrim is a war veteran who becomes "unstuck in time." He seems to be obsessed with the aliens, called the Tralfamadorians, that supposedly abducted him and could see in the fourth dimension. Right off the bat, Slaughterhouse-Five has caught our attention. As we read through the novel, the way we experience it is the same as Billy sees time, disconnected and random. The book keeps jumping from time period to time period, thoroughly confusing the reader. In some places, Vonnegut makes himself a character in his own novel. It is confusing to the point that the reader has no idea if Billy or Vonnegut is talking.
The novel makes us slightly disillusioned in the fact that we don't know the difference between real and fake. We are convinced (as is his family) that Billy is crazy and what he tells us about the Tralfamadorians is obviously untrue. But how are we to know if everything else he tells us of the war is true? The satire and irony in this book add comic relief to what would usually be a depressing scene, to our enjoyment.
The genius of Slaughterhouse-Five is that Vonnegut seems so apathetic about war in places that we wonder why this is even considered an antiwar book. But the reality is that his use of understatement and reverse psychology arouses feelings in us. When he says war cannot be stopped, we think (more passionately than if he was agreeing with us) that yes, it can. When he says there is no such thing as free will, we say yes, there is. All in all, Slaughterhouse-Five is an enjoyable way to use one's time.
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