Book Review: Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade, by Kurt Vonnegut

The firebombing of Dresden, nonlinear time-traveling, aliens who rewrite the New Testament, and dog torture.



Delacorte, 1969, 186 pages

Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes 'unstuck in time' after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Slaughterhouse-Five is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is also as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch-22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it unique poignancy, and humor.

( So it goes. )

Verdict: This is a great novel that deserves to be read. Some people will love it. I did not so much. It's only nominally science fiction, and more of a satirical condemnation of war in the same vein as Catch-22, with doses of time travel and aliens. Nonlinear, thought-provoking, very strange, I don't think anyone can tell you if you're going to like it before you read it yourself.

Slaughterhouse-Five is on the list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, though I did not read it for the books1001 challenge.

Book Review: Slaughterhouse-Five, or the Children's Crusade, by Kurt Vonnegut

The firebombing of Dresden, nonlinear time-traveling, aliens who rewrite the New Testament, and dog torture.



Delacorte, 1969, 186 pages

Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes 'unstuck in time' after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.

Slaughterhouse-Five is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is also as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch-22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it unique poignancy, and humor.

( So it goes. )

Verdict: This is a great novel that deserves to be read. Some people will love it. I did not so much. It's only nominally science fiction, and more of a satirical condemnation of war in the same vein as Catch-22, with doses of time travel and aliens. Nonlinear, thought-provoking, very strange, I don't think anyone can tell you if you're going to like it before you read it yourself.

Slaughterhouse-Five is on the list of 1001 Books You Must Read Before You Die, though I did not read it for the books1001 challenge.