Slaughterhouse-Five
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Description
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time • One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years
Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.”
An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it. Authors as wide-ranging as Norman Mailer, John Irving, Michael Crichton, Tim O’Brien, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Strout, David Sedaris, Jennifer Egan, and J. K. Rowling have all found inspiration in Vonnegut’s words. Jonathan Safran Foer has described Vonnegut as “the kind of writer who made people—young people especially—want to write.” George Saunders has declared Vonnegut to be “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.”
More than fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut’s portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.
Book Information
Characteristics
1 reviews
Mood
Protagonist(s)
Pace
Writing Style
Posts
Es handelt sich um eine kurze, aber dennoch anspruchsvolle Lektüre. Vonnegut, wie sein Protagonist Billy Pilgrim, erlebte während des Zweiten Weltkriegs das verheerende Bombardement von Dresden, das zehntausende Zivilisten das Leben kostete. Dieses Ereignis bildet den Kern des Romans. Etwas verwirrend ist die komplizierte Zeitstruktur des Buches: Billy Pilgrim wird "zeitversetzt", nachdem er von einem Tralfamadorianischen Raumschiff entführt wird. Dadurch springt er von einem Moment zum anderen durch die Zeit, von der Zeit vor der Zerstörung Dresdens über seine Kindheit, sein Leben nach dem Krieg bis hin zur Vietnamkriegszeit. Auf seiner Reise begegnet er einer Vielzahl skurriler und bemitleidenswerter Charaktere, darunter der tyrannische Weary, der wütende Sadist Lazzaro, der amerikanische Nazi Campbell und der Science-Fiction-Autor Kilgore Trout. Vonnegut entwirft mit "Schlachthof 5" ein beeindruckendes Bild auf menschliche Schicksale, die Absurdität des Krieges und das menschliche Zeitverständnisses.
This book is not supposed to make you feel good. It's supposed to leave you sad and wondering, crying maybe over the tragedies that can take place in just one man's life who happens to be part of a world war among other things you wouldn't wish on anybody. Instead it provokes a smirk here or there. A smirk that rises a feeling of guilt deep down in your guts. And it doesn't make you cry either, doubling that feeling of guilt. Vonnegut uses a very special way of describing things and the style used in his writing supports the main character, who seems to be such a simple man and yet he is not. He is full of mystery, just as the actions are, that are described in this book. Slaughterhouse-Five is not a pleasant read and it's not designed to be, but it is a very good read, that I would recommend to anybody, willing to read a different kind of anti-war book.
I don't know what say. Can I say that I enjoyed it? It feels wrong to say that I enjoyed a book about the Dresden bombing, but if you can say it about any war book you can say it about this one I guess. I'm really happy I didn't know what this book is about before I started reading. I would have never picked it up. I don't have the stomach for memoirs about violence and usually have to force myself to keep reading. This book I simply breathed in.
So...WHAT WAS THE FREACKING POINT ABOUT THIS BOOK? Did anything get resolved..I don't think so! WHY ON EARTH DID HE TRAVEL THROUGH AND WHY WORLD WAR TWO! Why?! The only reason why this book gets two stars...well I read a book (Le Grand Cahier) and there a dog gets raped. By a GIRL! So I've read worse, but I still don't like slaughterhouse five...because I DON'T GET IT. AND WHEN TEY KILLED THE DOG...I WAS DONE WITH IT.
This is more art than enjoyment and like a lot of the big modern classics, I understand what it wants to achieve but it doesnt entirely resonate with me. I see why it stood the test of time, it has a lot to offer: it fascinated me and I was intruiged bei the stylistic choices, but the actual content wasn't offering me something I could wholeheartedly enjoy. While I can appreciate the non-linear style, the metaphors and the writing, what I want from books is to feel with the characters and see ideas, either stories or concepts, explored. I dont mind that much that the characters arent in the forfront in this novel, I think the use of them supported the overal themes quite well, but for all the appreciation I have for this, it still annoyed me that the human zoo, the time travel, the alien obduction... these ideas were so underutilized. Intentionally, yes, but these elements still were what I ultimately wanted from this book. It's a really interesting look into the mind of a disenchanted person, though. I like it on that level. I'm just more into Science Fiction than Literary Fiction
Characteristics
1 reviews
Mood
Protagonist(s)
Pace
Writing Style
Description
Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time • One of The Atlantic’s Great American Novels of the Past 100 Years
Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.”
An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it. Authors as wide-ranging as Norman Mailer, John Irving, Michael Crichton, Tim O’Brien, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Strout, David Sedaris, Jennifer Egan, and J. K. Rowling have all found inspiration in Vonnegut’s words. Jonathan Safran Foer has described Vonnegut as “the kind of writer who made people—young people especially—want to write.” George Saunders has declared Vonnegut to be “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.”
More than fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut’s portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties.
Book Information
Posts
Es handelt sich um eine kurze, aber dennoch anspruchsvolle Lektüre. Vonnegut, wie sein Protagonist Billy Pilgrim, erlebte während des Zweiten Weltkriegs das verheerende Bombardement von Dresden, das zehntausende Zivilisten das Leben kostete. Dieses Ereignis bildet den Kern des Romans. Etwas verwirrend ist die komplizierte Zeitstruktur des Buches: Billy Pilgrim wird "zeitversetzt", nachdem er von einem Tralfamadorianischen Raumschiff entführt wird. Dadurch springt er von einem Moment zum anderen durch die Zeit, von der Zeit vor der Zerstörung Dresdens über seine Kindheit, sein Leben nach dem Krieg bis hin zur Vietnamkriegszeit. Auf seiner Reise begegnet er einer Vielzahl skurriler und bemitleidenswerter Charaktere, darunter der tyrannische Weary, der wütende Sadist Lazzaro, der amerikanische Nazi Campbell und der Science-Fiction-Autor Kilgore Trout. Vonnegut entwirft mit "Schlachthof 5" ein beeindruckendes Bild auf menschliche Schicksale, die Absurdität des Krieges und das menschliche Zeitverständnisses.
This book is not supposed to make you feel good. It's supposed to leave you sad and wondering, crying maybe over the tragedies that can take place in just one man's life who happens to be part of a world war among other things you wouldn't wish on anybody. Instead it provokes a smirk here or there. A smirk that rises a feeling of guilt deep down in your guts. And it doesn't make you cry either, doubling that feeling of guilt. Vonnegut uses a very special way of describing things and the style used in his writing supports the main character, who seems to be such a simple man and yet he is not. He is full of mystery, just as the actions are, that are described in this book. Slaughterhouse-Five is not a pleasant read and it's not designed to be, but it is a very good read, that I would recommend to anybody, willing to read a different kind of anti-war book.
I don't know what say. Can I say that I enjoyed it? It feels wrong to say that I enjoyed a book about the Dresden bombing, but if you can say it about any war book you can say it about this one I guess. I'm really happy I didn't know what this book is about before I started reading. I would have never picked it up. I don't have the stomach for memoirs about violence and usually have to force myself to keep reading. This book I simply breathed in.
So...WHAT WAS THE FREACKING POINT ABOUT THIS BOOK? Did anything get resolved..I don't think so! WHY ON EARTH DID HE TRAVEL THROUGH AND WHY WORLD WAR TWO! Why?! The only reason why this book gets two stars...well I read a book (Le Grand Cahier) and there a dog gets raped. By a GIRL! So I've read worse, but I still don't like slaughterhouse five...because I DON'T GET IT. AND WHEN TEY KILLED THE DOG...I WAS DONE WITH IT.
This is more art than enjoyment and like a lot of the big modern classics, I understand what it wants to achieve but it doesnt entirely resonate with me. I see why it stood the test of time, it has a lot to offer: it fascinated me and I was intruiged bei the stylistic choices, but the actual content wasn't offering me something I could wholeheartedly enjoy. While I can appreciate the non-linear style, the metaphors and the writing, what I want from books is to feel with the characters and see ideas, either stories or concepts, explored. I dont mind that much that the characters arent in the forfront in this novel, I think the use of them supported the overal themes quite well, but for all the appreciation I have for this, it still annoyed me that the human zoo, the time travel, the alien obduction... these ideas were so underutilized. Intentionally, yes, but these elements still were what I ultimately wanted from this book. It's a really interesting look into the mind of a disenchanted person, though. I like it on that level. I'm just more into Science Fiction than Literary Fiction