Name: Matthew Jackson's review of Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Item: Slaughterhouse-Five
Rating: 3
Author: Matthew Jackson

Kurt Vonnegut

Billy Pilgrim returns home from the Second World War only to be kidnapped by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore, who teach him that time is an eternal present

Or, The Children's Crusade, a Duty-dance with Death

Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death

matus

And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it 

Avery

There in the hospital, Billy was having an adventure very common among people without power in time of war: he wahe was trying to prove to a willfully deaf and blind enemy that he was interested to hear and see.

Before you kill somebody, make absolutely sure he isn't well connected.

I think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren't going to want to go on living.

He said that Americans had no choice but to keep fighting in Vietnam until they achieved victory or until the Communists realized that they could not force their way of life on weak countries.

It was his addled understanding of the rules of warfare that the marksman should be given a second chance.

Matthew Jackson

Billy Pilgrim survives capture by the Gemans in World War II, the Dresden bombings, and the struggle for financial success only to be kidnapped in a flying saucer and taken to the planet Tralfamadore.

A Duty Dance With Death

Slaughterhouse Five Or the Children's Crusade

Audrey Lord

Jenelle andersen

Arun Khanna

** spoiler alert **
           Slaughterhouse-5 is a tragic story where emotional trauma is mixed up with cognitive dissonance. Billy, the “protagonist” of our story has been through the brutal firebombing in Dresden as a POW. His experiences presumably lead him to have delusions of being abducted by an alien race called the Tralfamadorian. There are notable differences in his treatment as a POW by the Germans and the Traflamadorians, he is looked up to by the aliens whereas he faced constant humiliation by the Germans, etc.

Billy’s predicament seems to have resulted from his mind shielding him from the trauma and severe emotional damage he faced in Dresden. As the narrator states: “Actually, Billy’s outward listlessness was a screen. The listlessness concealed a mind which was fizzing and flashing thrillingly. It was preparing letters and lectures about the flying saucers, the negligibility of death, and the true nature of time.” His trauma results him in making questionable decisions like his marriage: “Billy didn’t want to marry ugly Valencia. She was one of the symptoms of his disease. He knew he was going crazy when he heard himself proposing marriage to her, when he begged her to take the diamond ring and be his companion for life.”

Throughout the book, Vonnegut criticizes religion and society with his sharp tongue:
“The flaw in the Christ stories, said the visitor from outer space, was that Christ, who didn’t look like much, was actually the Son of the Most Powerful Being in the Universe. Readers understood that, so, when they came to the crucifixion, they naturally thought, and Rosewater read out loud again:

Oh, boy–they sure picked the wrong guy to lynch _that_ time!

And that thought had a brother: “There are right people to lynch.” Who? People not well connected. So it goes.

The visitor from outer space made a gift to the Earth of a new Gospel. In it, Jesus really was a nobody, and a pain in the neck to a lot of people with better connections than he had. He still got to say all the lovely and puzzling things he said in the other Gospels.

So the people amused themselves one day by nailing him to a cross and planting the cross in the ground. There couldn’t possibly be any repercussions, the lynchers thought. The reader would have to think that, too, since the new Gospel hammered home again and again what a nobody Jesus was.

And then, just before the nobody died, the heavens opened up, and there was thunder and lightning. The voice of God came crashing down. He told the people that he was adopting the bum as his son, giving him the full powers and privileges of The Son of the Creator of the Universe throughout all eternity. God said this: From this moment on, He will punish horribly anybody who torments a bum who has no connections.”

“Americans, like human beings everywhere, believe many things that are obviously untrue, the monograph went on. Their most destructive untruth is that it is very easy for any American to make money. They will not acknowledge how in fact hard money is to come by, and, therefore, those who have no money blame and blame and blame themselves. This inward blame has been a treasure for the rich and powerful, who have had to do less for their poor, publicly and privately, than any other ruling class since, say, Napoleonic times.”

“It had twenty-dollar bills for leaves. Its flowers were government bonds. Its fruit was diamonds. It attracted human beings who killed each other around the roots and made very good fertilizer.”

Kimber Severance 

'The great, urgent, passionate American writer of our century, who offers us a model of the kind of compassionate thinking that might yet save us from ourselves.' George Saunders Prisoner of war, optometrist, time-traveller - these are the life roles of Billy Pilgrim, hero of this miraculously moving, bitter and funny story of innocence faced with apocalypse. Slaughterhouse Five is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centring on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know. 'An extraordinary success. A book to read and reread. He is a true artist' New York Times Book Review

The Children's Crusade: A Duty-Dance with Death

poprika

Ryan North

The first-ever graphic novel adaptation of Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great anti-war books. An American classic and one of the world’s seminal antiwar books, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five is faithfully presented in graphic novel form for the first time from Eisner Award-winning writer Ryan North (How to Invent Everything: A Survival Guide for the Stranded Time Traveler) and Eisner Award-nominated artist Albert Monteys (Universe!). Listen: Billy Pilgrim has... ...read Kilgore Trout ...opened a successful optometry business ...built a loving family ...witnessed the firebombing of Dresden ...traveled to the planet Tralfamadore ...met Kurt Vonnegut ...come unstuck in time. Billy Pilgrim’s journey is at once a farcical look at the horror and tragedy of war where children are placed on the frontlines and die (so it goes), and a moving examination of what it means to be fallibly human.

Taylor

I’m such a HUGE Vonnegut fan that I ordered a copy of the graphic novel as soon as I knew this adaptation existed. That might have colored my view of it as a standalone work. There’s some Vonnegut-ness that’s missing—which isn’t to say it’s not a good book on its own, but I think I will need to revisit when I’m not expecting the impossible.

andrea

not for me. i appreciate the content and message itself, but the characterisation was nonexistent and shallow. most of all, the narration jumping all over the place made this book extremely tedious, it was impossible for me to feel attached because of how it is structured. and yes i know that's an essential characteristic of postmodernism, but understanding why the author has chosen to write in a certain way doesn't mean i have to enjoy it.

Good book. Vonnegut writes so nice and clean I could have read this all in an afternoon. I don’t know if I want to read anything written by anyone else now, I’ve been ruined.

Eli Alvah Huckabee

Courtney

Aleksandra

Caterina P.

Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Book in a Tweet: Great characters stuck in an absurdist plot, with a dystopian setting, a few “Oh God” moments sprinkled amongst the black humor.
Stars: 4/5
*Note: If you have already read Slaughterhouse-Five I’ve included two links at the end of the article to recommended reads in the same genre.

While scouring lists of “must read books” I found Slaughterhouse-Five (SH5) in the top ten consistently, I wasn’t completely sold on the novel. Personally ‘war time dramas’ aren’t my favorite genre of books so I kept pushing SH5 off to the side for a while. Recently my friend, lets call her Macie, Macie had been discussing the book with a friend from her English class. She despised the novel. She claimed it didn’t have a plot, was too much about the war and not enough about the characters. As she was explaining why she hated it my other friend, let’s call him Matt, Matt was trying to save the books reputation. He highly recommended it to me, claiming it was simply about “an author attempting to write a war time drama in a dystopian universe.”

Well, nothing is quite that simple with Vonnegut.

For my full review visit: 
http://adventuresandcrossroads.wordpr...

Bridget Smith

Lotsss of thoughts many of them about the absurdity of war and free will but this quote stuck with me the most. I keep thinking about it.“And Lot's wife, of course, was told not to look back where all those people and their homes had been. But she did look back, and I love her for that, because it was so human. So she was turned into a pillar of salt. So it goes.”

What a book. One of the highlights I've read in 2022 so far. Vonnegut's style is not for anyone. I read first Cat's Cradle, and glad I did. It was easier to read Slaughterhouse-Five. It was depressing, complex, and ironic in some places. It must be read by everyone, even to understand what the madness character is going through. In the end, I wasn't even sure if the protagonist was hallucinating or if it was indeed real. 

Fatih Arslan

Deyana

"And I asked myself about the present: how wide it was, how deep it was, how much was mine to keep" (23).

"Another time Billy heard Rosewater say to a psychiatrist, "I think you guys are going to have to come up with a lot of wonderful new lies, or people just aren't going to want to go on living" (129)

Nia Chin

good book, just a likkle confusing at times

Omar AlHashmi

4.5/5

This book man. The way it was written was so clever. With what was actually happening to the character with his "time travels". We get to experience the full spectrum of his life. This is both something good and bad at the same time. The reason is there are some amazing parts through his time travels. Unfortunately there are many mediocre parts muddled in between the amazing parts. Mainly the present time was so boring to me for some reason. However the parts in Dresden and Trafaldamore (if thats how you spell it) were really great. Which is why I'm giving it a 4 star rating rather than a 5. I will definitely go for more Vonnegut books in the future as I started to become a big fan of satire.

Edit: 
Changed the 4 to a 5 star rating. Since I recently started giving 5 star to books I rate 4.5

Trever

There isn't much that hasn't been said here about Slaughterhouse-Five. As far as my opinion, here goes:

I liked the book because it was entertaining and interesting. Vonnegut managed to write time travel and aliens into a story and not have it be too cliché. As far as the negatives go, his prose bordered on being overly simplistic.

But overall I'd say solid four or four and a half stars.

Aske Dørge

Such a wonderful little book about living an entire life after having experienced being a child(soldier) at war, a POW and the aftermath of the firebombing of Dresden. It’s tough being a witness to the cruelty humans can inflict, and it’s hard not to laugh a little while reading about it.

Nicholas Laurie

Brilliant.

Vonnegut’s commentary on war has been discussed thoroughly and I have nothing further to add there, other than that the messaging worked for me and I found this to be a highly engaging read. 

I loved the structuring of the book as it kept the momentum moving at all times while keeping me engaged with different plot points and timelines. 

jillian tenner

I’m into the time travel I’m into it but maybe I don’t know why it happened or at least I think I know why it happened but I have none of the historical knowledge to support this book 

Erfan Abedi

تا قبل از چند صفحه‌ی آخر، می‌خواستم به‌ش ۴ بدم، ولی عالیه این کتاب، عالیه.
× ری‌ویوی کامل به‌زودی..

Brad Mitchell

I'm really glad that 12 years after I first read it, I loved it just as much.

lauren carla

4.5 actual rating. I think the most interesting aspect of the novel to me was the chronology; I was a little confused about it at first, but as the novel progressed I thought it was really fitting. I also thought it was intriguing how often the author would personify inanimate objects, it made for some really weird but cool sentences idk

Sarah Escorsa

Getting through this book was a real struggle! What bothered me most was Vonnegut's writing style. It was just too chaotic and repetitive. I'm not sure I will keep on trying to read "1001" books, it seems that every single one I read is a real disappointment...

Matthew Jackson &
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut

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