Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel (Modern Library 100 Best Novels)

This is one of my favorite books of all time, and introduced me to writing styles and content that do not necessarily line up with a variety of traditions. After reading and giving away about 5 copies of this gem over time, I recently reread it once more and the book has a more important place in my life. It turned out that I acquired PTSD about 10 years ago and after a lot of work and guidance, I have finally reached a more stable place. The ...read more

Slaughterhouse Five was my introduction to Kurt Vonnegut, and whether as a consequence or coincidence, of all his works I’ve read, it still takes up the most space in my head. You could just look at it as an antiwar novel about wwII, written during the Vietnam war, but its significance has a much broader reach than either conflict. It’s really just about War. Period. The same goes for the Books protagonist, Billy Pilgrim, who is more of a plac...read more

Was it a dream? Time travel, UFOs, the war. POWs. A lot.

At its core, Slaughterhouse Five is a harrowing tale of war and its affect on the human psyche. Vonnegut opens the book with an explanation, stating he has been trying to write this since the end of the war and has yet to succeed. He more or less tells the reader to keep their expectations low, and that this book is nothing more than a failure. He follows this, of course, with the masterpiece that is Slaughterhouse Five. The nonlinear storyline p...read more

This book has been on my "ought to read" list for a long time, but it kept getting pushed to the bottom of the pile. Knowing the basic concept of the story, I think I feared that following the plot might be too much work. I was wrong. Despite bouncing around in time and location, Vonnegut leads the reader in such a way that I was never confused. In fact, the short, simple episodes made reading easier. There is profundity in the simplicity of the...read more