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| Slaughterhouse-Five | 
 enlarge | Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Category: Book
List Price: $14.00
Buy New: $5.78
You Save: $8.22 (59%)
Buy New/Used/Collectible from $4.25
Avg. Customer Rating:  (708 reviews)
Sales Rank: 568
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:
 Vonnegut was a God of Literature April 20, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
And I am humbled every time I read him. My back is bowed from too much bowing in reverence.
 Thought provoking anit-war novel April 12, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
Slaughterhouse-Five (or The Children's Crusade) is an anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. about the bombing of Dresden, Germany at the end of World War II. While Kurt Vonnegut was a POW at Germany he related the experience of being in Dresden through the character of Billy Pilgrim. Billy is deeply disturbed by what he experiences at Dresden and through the rest of his life he travels to different moments in time. He believes that he was abducted by aliens, Tralfamadorians, who can see and travel through all moments in time. This discussion of time is one of the most fascinating parts of the book.
This creates a disjointed effect as Billy tells the story of being captured and sent to Dresden, interspersed with experiences from the rest of his life. Kurt Vonnegut makes interesting use of prose with many repeating phrases, the most common of which is "so it goes" which comes after death (to include animals and even a glass of water). It seems to create the effect numbing effect of seeing as much death as the author saw in World War II, while at the same time highlighting each instance.
This is a creative and engaging anti-war novel that is also very well written. A very quick read but one that provokes some thought.
 Like Ohio State football, this book is overrated. March 15, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
This book is overrated. Although it is interesting and I couldn't put it down, I found that its standing as a perennial anti-war book is undeserved. Sledge, in With the Old Breed, had a more profound impact on my understanding of the destruction, horror, and sense of helplessness and despair in war.
Truth with a lot of fiction March 10, 2008
1 out of 2 found this review helpful
Well written but the plot really does jump around quite a bit because he is time traveling, quite often from the past to the future back and forth. I read it because someone had told me the lead character was an optometrist, which is what i do. The book on its own which tries to portray the horror that was the bombing of Dresden actually witnessed by the author seems strangely included in this science fiction time story including an alien planet called Tralfalmadore. It just seems weird to me that the important truth of the horrific firebombing of people and the incredible loss of life should be juxtaposed to twilight zone science fiction of man in a zoo on the Tralfalmadore planet. Odd mix but for some reason i do revisit the images from the book. Quite honestly, if it weren't considered a classic I'd probably be more apt to give it 3 stars.
 Simple and Simplistic March 8, 2008
3 out of 3 found this review helpful
This is an easy-to-read satire that alludes to the weighty concepts of war, death and fate but never seems to bring home the point. The novel seems to revel in the fact that it even though it is simple it is really about the Big Ideas ("Look at me! Look at me!"). Just mentioning those ideas over and over again without examining them is not enough.
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