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Kurt vonnegut took decades to write this book because it took decades for him to find the truth that lies so deeply inside such events. Kurt takes poetic license to reveal the experience of war from a young man who had grown up in the midwest and traveled to, what seemed like, an alien planet where time has no meaning as we are told to understand it. He sees his life as if it existed all in one moment, beginning to end and he as its' ever present spectator. He was a prisoner of war in Dresden, Germany near the end of the war when that city was fire bombed by British and U.S. planes. Dresden was a city that had no military significance and so most of germanys' population had gone there to seperate themselves from a war that no longer was winnable. Kurt had been taken prisoner and sent to dresden to provide labor for the towns function while most of germanys men were fighting on the fronts. He along with other U.s. soldiers were given an underground slaughter house to sleep in at night. When the bombers came that is where they went, slaughter house five. When the bombing had ended, they exited the underground womb to find a wasteland. There are estimates that over 175,000 civilians were burned alive in that bombing which some feel was retribution for the V-1 and V-2 bombings of London. Vonnegut lived those days upon that alien landscape digging bodies out of the ruble for burial. He saw the war birthed horrors that we somehow find honor and heroism within. He lived through what war really is and could not understand why this truth was not being told. His book on Dresden is still one of the few ever written and maybe will ever be written that provides a first hand view of what is not heroic or honorable and never will be, if it was we would fight no more forever.Read full review
Slaughterhouse-Five is in the Top 10 of all-time American novels. It is possibly Kurt Vonnegut Jr.'s greatest piece of work - which is saying something, considering all of his other great novels (Cat's Cradle, Timequake, Breakfast of Champions, Mother Night, Sirens of a Titan, and Player Piano/Utopia 14). The story of Billy Pilgrim - the story of Vonnegut, much like parts of Mother Night, Timequake, Palm Sunday, and other bits and pieces of Vonnegut's works - part fiction/part-autobiography; and this is why we love him. This is why we adore him. This is why he is the king of satire. I recommend it to every person who ever asks me for a novel to read. Just as a recommend many of Vonnegut's other works; but this is always the first I recommend. It works on the levels of satire, on humanity, on emotion, on utter dependence upon one's own mind, a weakening mind - as is all of ours in their own way. Vonnegut shows us what life is, from the lowliest of times, to the greatest of times, and teaches us to take it all in with a bit of humility. And we learn to do so - and like it.Read full review
I read this book years ago but you get something different from it when you are older. Kurt Vonnegut is such a fantastic writer..
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: Pre-owned
Awesome. Thank you!
Verified purchase: Yes | Condition: New
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