- Publisher: Dial Press
- Publication date: 2009
- Copyright Year: 1969
- Pages: 224
- ISBN: 978-0-385-33384-9
- Author: Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse Five by Kurt Vonnegut tells the story of Billy Pilgrim. Like Vonnegut himself, Pilgrim was a POW in Dresden Germany when it was destroyed by allied bombing in 1945. Presumably unlike Vonnegut, Billy Pilgrim lives his life non-linearly. He regularly jumps from one point in his life to another, from childhood to death and everything in between. At one point, he is abducted by aliens and taken to their world where he lives as an exhibit in their zoo.
Vonnegut spins this tale with his normal mixture of social commentary and philosophy wrapped in wit, irony and ridiculousness. It is obviously critical of war and the impersonal death and destruction epitomized by the fire bombing of Dresden during WWII that killed more people, mostly civilians, than the nuclear bombings in Japan. There are many other senseless deaths from plane crashes to car accidents to assassinations.
Vonnegut’s ultimate reaction to all of these deaths is “So it goes”. Death is a part of life. Living outside of time, death is not the end of life, just another experience, and Billy Pilgrim can experience that before experiencing his birth again, or the killing of over 100,000 people in bomb raids. Part PTSD exploration, part history, part satire, part science fiction, and all pure Kurt Vonnegut.
Slaughterhouse Five is an American classic novel. It is often listed among the top novels of all time. I enjoyed it very much and I still feel like I missed some of it, that if I were to read it again, there would be more there. Vonnegut does not hit you over the head with his messages, but slips them in under your skin where they multiply in unexpected directions.
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New from Matt Truxaw…
Matt Truxaw is the author of the hard science fiction thrillers: “Plastiphobia: aka Plastivore” and “Anthrophobia: A Teacher’s Tale”
They are both available on Amazon in Paperback, Kindle and are free to read with Kindle Unlimited.
When you read either, he would really appreciate a review/rating on Amazon or your favorite book seller/book reader site.
More about Matt:
He was born in Orange County California many years ago and he still lives there. He has been reading books for most of those years and writing up book reviews for the last few years. He gets most of his books out of the library so expect a lot of old science fiction classics book reviews and other science related reviews in addition to newer books he comes across.
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