I think I might be part of the minority here, in regards of how I feel about this book, and I might be deemed unpopular, but being honest, I didn't really enjoy this, and I'm rather disappointed.
I knew before I began reading this, that the narration was going to jump back and forth a bit, but this caused me to develop a headache. I found it tedious and it left me immensely dissatisfied. I think it left me feeling very detached from the characters, too.
The "So it goes" expression, was repeated SO much, it left me on a borderline breakdown. It was irritatingly ridiculous. There were some parts of the book that I smiled at, and possibly even tittered to myself about, but really, overall, this book was difficult to like, useless and Vonnegut, in my opinion, is like a Marmite storyteller . You either love him or you hate him. At this moment, I'm not inspired to read more from him!

Σπουδαίο αντιπολεμικό βιβλίο, χιουμοριστική και ταυτόχρονα ζέστη γραφή, θεοπάλαβοι ήρωες και μια γερή δόση σουρεαλισμού για να αντιληφθεί κανείς τον παραλογισμό του πολέμου. Ούτε αίματα και σοκαριστικές ανατροπές, ούτε τυμπανοκρουσίες και εμβατήρια, ούτε σοβαροφάνεια. Ένας ύμνος στον Άνθρωπο και ένα υπόδειγμα εξαιρετικής γραφής. Έτσι πάει.

“How nice — to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.”

Slaughterhouse-Five is about Billy Pilgrim’s survival of the firebombing of Dresden as a prisoner-of-war during World War II and is often cited as one of the most enduring anti-war novels of all time.

Let me be real here - it’s times like these that I am so thankful for bookstagram. Never in my life would I have picked up this book if it wasn’t for this platform... and I am so incredibly glad I did as it surprised me in the BEST way possible.

You think this book is about one thing... and then it kinda goes down a different path that I did NOT see coming and all of a sudden there’s science fiction thrown into the mix?! Whaaaat! Yet it works SO WELL. These may even have been my favourite parts of the book!

The narrative is non-linear as we jump back and forth in time and yet it doesn’t feel disjointed in the slightest. There’s a lot of repetition as well, which again, doesn’t bother me, because Vonnegut just executes it all so seamlessly and effectively. A lot of it is just downright absurd and crazy, but if I’ve said it once I’ll say it a million times... it just works!!

I simply adored so many of the messages in this book, whether it was the anti-war stance, the commentaries on life and death, or just the fact it makes you stop and think. And it’s so goddamn funny.

There are so many books that I’ve read during my 30 before 30 challenge that I’ve thought “well, once was enough! I shan’t see you again...” but I will definitely revisit this at some point. It’s got a hold on me.

So it goes...

4.5 stars.

I read this book first in 1999 when my grandfather passed away. It was a bit of a coincidence as his funeral occurred between a Primate Anatomy exam and a paper for my Experimental Fiction class on Slaughterhouse Five. I was frantically trying to remember the names of all kinds of bones when I picked this up in the other hand and tried to wrap my head around it.


Basically, Vonnegut has written the only Tralfamadorian novel I can think of. These beings, most undoubtedly inspired in Billy Pilgrim's head by the scattered science fiction plots of Kilgore Trout, experience time as a continuum that is constantly occurring...and when they look at time, even though in their version of history, the world is in a constant state of being destroyed for example, they choose to see the things that make them happy...the good moments.

What Billy learns from these creatures is that each traumatic event that has happened in his life fits very precisely into a state of meticulous nature. It has always happened and always will happen and so it goes (on and on and on). What Billy Pilgrim truly experiences over and over in his life is Post Traumatic Stress Syndrome. He exists throughout his memories traveling back and forth with the knowledge of what will happen and how precise it all is. Dresden is bombed in every moment and his friend Derby is put in front of a firing squad. At every second, he is the only survivor of a plane wreck, he is getting married, and he is fighting a Children's Crusade. It's the only way he can look at the despair that has happened and make sense of it.

When my grandfather died and I read this, I felt as if it was just what I needed because I could escape back into time and remember the good memories of my grandfather...if they existed (even if in some fourth dimension) then he was just as dead as he was alive and eating peanut butter chocolate ice cream. At the same time my grandfather had a heart attack, I was watching him play cards with my grandma at the kitchen table. But which one to think of? Well, that was easy. Death can't be prevented and so it goes but you can always try to change which moment you live in. It's a little bit different than a memory and if you go far into it, you'll end up like Billy Pilgrim, which is to say, you will go insane because the rest of the world sees time as linear and counts seconds and minutes and hours.

Once and awhile, it doesn't hurt. I re-read this again on the plane rides home and back before and after my grandmother's funeral on Monday and last night. My grandma was a strong and intelligent woman and she always read everything she saw. My recent memories of my grandmother were of her at the holidays. She always had her mind but her physical condition had deteriorated and she was dependent on oxygen. It made me sad to think of her like this a bit.

It's really hard for me to think that my grandma is no more but then I tell myself...well, it's silly for me to keep crying on and on about this. My grandma is right now reading at 4am in her living room chair and I am a child creeping down the stairs hoping she's still up. She is telling me that one day I'll come around and like green onions. She is reminding me to keep my feet off of the davenport and about being "tickled" by something. She lives in a jungle of houseplants and watches musicals all of the time, always pointing out when some distant relative of mine appears briefly in The Greatest Show on Earth. My grandma can't be dead and be doing all of those things, can she? It doesn't make sense. She will always be alive in some moments just like I will always be seven and nine and twenty eight and perhaps past thirty and forty. So, she'll always be here.

I just wish I could dream about her.

Such a great book!

I am so glad I decided to read it, after passing it by for long enough and that goes for the author as well; definitely going to delve into his other works at some point - recommendations?

I don't particularly read war fiction but the Dresden bombing running through the book held my interest and left me wanting to know more, I'm definitely going to read up on it as it sounds astonishing.

The sci-fi parts were interesting too. I can see why the book is discussed as being about what is now called PTSD but which had no name until relatively recently.

So it goes...

This is absolutely a dark satirical masterpiece!

Kurt Vonnegut's "Slaughterhouse-Five" stands as a timeless testament to the power of literature to confront the horrors of war and challenge the boundaries of storytelling. Published in 1969, this anti-war science fiction novel has captivated readers with its unique blend of dark humor, nonlinear narrative, and poignant social commentary. With its exploration of themes like the destructiveness of war, the nature of time, and the fragility of human existence, "Slaughterhouse-Five" remains a literary masterpiece.

The novel follows the life of Billy Pilgrim, an American soldier who becomes "unstuck in time" after surviving the firebombing of Dresden during World War II. Billy's experiences are recounted in a non-linear fashion, shifting seamlessly between his wartime captivity, his post-war life, and even moments from his future. Through this fractured narrative structure, Vonnegut brilliantly portrays the disorienting effects of war and the jumbled nature of memory and time.

One of the defining features of "Slaughterhouse-Five" is Vonnegut's unique writing style, characterized by a deadpan humor and a biting satirical tone. With his concise and straightforward prose, he navigates the darkest corners of human history, confronting the absurdity and senselessness of war. The juxtaposition of gallows humor and harrowing imagery creates a surreal and unforgettable reading experience, as Vonnegut challenges the conventional expectations of war literature.

Vonnegut's ability to convey the horrors of war while maintaining a detached yet compassionate voice is truly remarkable. He forces readers to confront the atrocities of Dresden, where thousands of innocent lives were lost in a devastating firestorm. Through Billy's eyes, Vonnegut captures the surreal and nightmarish reality of war, exposing the futility and absurdity of human conflict.

The characters in "Slaughterhouse-Five" are vividly portrayed and deeply human. Billy Pilgrim, with his passive demeanor and detached perspective, serves as a symbol of the everyman caught in the tumult of war. Supporting characters like the witty and irreverent Kilgore Trout, and the tragic figure of Edgar Derby, further enrich the narrative, highlighting different aspects of the human condition.

Moreover, Vonnegut's exploration of the concept of time and its effects on human perception adds an additional layer of depth to the novel. The non-linear structure, with its time-traveling narrative, challenges the linear perception of time and questions the very nature of cause and effect. This unconventional approach prompts readers to consider the subjective nature of reality and the limitations of human understanding.

"Slaughterhouse-Five" is a profound and thought-provoking novel that addresses important moral and philosophical questions. Vonnegut uses his narrative to question the glorification of war, to challenge the notion of free will, and to explore the ethical implications of human actions. By weaving together elements of science fiction, autobiography, and social critique, he crafts a narrative that defies categorization and invites readers to engage in critical reflection.
Overall, "Slaughterhouse-Five" is a literary masterpiece that continues to resonate with readers decades after its initial publication. Kurt Vonnegut's unique blend of dark humor, poignant social commentary, and experimental storytelling elevates this novel to the ranks of classic literature.

By confronting the devastating consequences of war and challenging the conventional notions of time and reality, "Slaughterhouse-Five" leaves an indelible impression on its readers, urging them to question the status quo and consider the profound complexities of the human experience.

I was initially baffled by Vonnegut's semi-autobiographical, self-referential, satirical, postmodern, post-war, science fiction classic. Can you blame me?

Once I got into it, though, and got into the rhythm of Billy Pilgrim's time-hopping dance, I had to admit to myself, this is a brilliant work.

Billy Pilgrim survived the horrific bombing of Dresden in WWII. Some time later he becomes "unstuck" from time, able to travel with ease back and forth. He meets aliens (Tralfamadorians) who espouse a fatalistic philosophy, which he takes on wholeheartedly. They see the world in 4 dimensions, the 4th being time. Moments in time can be visited and re-lived at will. They can see the beginning, end and everything in between. Trying to change what happens is futile - what happens is what always will happen. The only comfort is that there are enough nice moments to relive.

This is how Billy Pilgrim copes with the atrocities he has witnessed. Suffering from PTSD, he's very detached and disconnected from the world after returning from the war. I understand, but find it deeply sad, that he has to reach so far out for hope, to make life palatable. He has to leave Earth to lighten the anxiety about the dark direction in which the world is spinning. Only when he is on display in an alien zoo is death relieved of finality and meaning.

As original and intelligent as this is, it was difficult for me to connect to. The book is very 'testosteroney'. This may be an unfair reaction, but it feels like it's written by a man for men; it's a gritty soldier's memoir of sorts, with female characters being peripheral and/or stupid and/or bitchy. So for me, this novel is like a painting by an undeniable talent, technically worthy of recognition, but one that I wouldn't hang in my living room. So it goes.

NB: I listened to this on audio and must say: James Franco had the perfect voice to narrate this book, with his slightly nasal, slightly wry, slightly charming, slightly odd combination of vibes only James Franco can offer.

My impression of the writing was one of coquetry: the author flirting with language and with structure. I had the feeling this story was an exercise in creative writing, which lacked an engaging, moving narrative.
It didn't work for me. I felt mostly bored and detached reading this book, especially during the Tralfamadorian portions.
I don't believe for one moment this is one of the world's greatest anti-war books ; I couldn't care less what happened in Billy Pilgrim's world.
The author couldn't be more right when he wrote at the end of chapter 1: "This one is a failure, and had to be, since it was written by a pillar of salt."

3/10

(with apologies to Samuel Coleridge)

Tralfamadorian scholars shared
A happy message for all men
Which Kurt, the loony author, wrote
With sorrow blended up with hope:
Things happened will again.


(See also: Ecclesiastes 1:9)

~

5 stars. A masterpiece, beautiful, elegant, and tender. A remarkable antiwar novel, a cornerstone of Humanist philosophy, and a funnysad tale of tragicomic life on Earth.

The novel is a fabulist take on the destruction of Dresden—the Florence of the Elbe, the Jewel Box—by Allied Bombing at the end of World War II. Author Vonnegut witnessed the mayhem as a 23-year old American POW. There are no characters here, really. Billy Pilgrim and the others are flat flat flat. Vonnegut's point being that the suffering brought on by the war dehumanized and diminished everyone to one-dimensionality.

It's an interesting idea and a perfect match for his spare style. I remember reading the book thirty years ago and thinking it rather comic. On this second reading the humor morphed to bleakest gravitas. The phrase "so it goes," repeated after every mention of death, becomes tiresome. Halfway through I started mentally deleting it from the text. This improved the book somewhat. There is a section in which Billy Pilgrim, due to his capture by extraterrestrials—the Tralfamadorians—for whom time is constant, not linear, watches a war film in reverse.

American planes, full of holes and wounded men and corpses took off backwards from an airfield in England. Over France, a few German planes flew at them backward, sucked bullets and shell fragments from some of the planes and crewmen. . . The formation flew backwards over a German city that was in flames. The bombers opened their bomb bay doors, exerted a miraculous magnetism which shrunk the fires, gathered them into cylindrical steel containers, and lifted the containers into the bellies of the planes. The containers were stored neatly in racks. The Germans below had miraculous devices of their own, which were long steel tubes. They used them to suck more fragments from the crewmen and planes. But there were still a few wounded Americans, though, and some of the bombers were in bad repair. Over France, though, German fighters came up again, and made everything and everybody as good as new

This germ of an idea, I suspect, was later expanded by Martin Amis in his Holocaust novel, Time's Arrow. Here's a brief quote from Time's Arrow to support my claim:

We'd picked up this batch from the mass grave, in the woods, and stood waiting by the van on the approach road while the carbon monoxide went about its work. All my men were dressed as doctors . . . waiting for the familiar volley of shouts and thumps from within . . . . We then drove them closer to town, where one of our men was readying the piles of clothes. Out they all filed. Among them was a mother and a baby, both naked, naturally, for now. The baby was weeping in a determined, muscular, long-haul rhythm, probably from earache. We then escorted this group of thirty souls into a low warehouse littered with primitive sewing machines and spindles . . . These Jews, led by the weeping baby, made their solemn way past a series of curtains and blankets and, one by one, backed their way through a missing panel in the wall. This panel I myself replaced with a softly spoken "Guten Tag." I don't know. I was moved, by their continued silence, by the baby's muffled cries. "Raus! Raus!" I shouted—to the men who romped off to explore the perimeter and to lay out some trinkets, and some food, some bread and tomatoes, say, as was traditional for the Jews later use.

n  

There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters.

n

For once I've been right- about being wrong. After I had first read this book, 5 years ago, I already knew that I would read it again at some point. I felt that it was special. But I couldn't quite put it all together and so it ended up with 3.5 stars. I wasn't wrong about it being special.

This is a book of contrasts. Vonneguts matter-of-factly prose and the jumbled narrative work well together. His dark and dry humor counterbalances the unspeakable horrors of war - it makes them bearable for the reader. With the things he says as well as with the things he doesn't say he makes it as clear perhaps as anyone ever has how horrific and also how absurd war is.

n  

Derby described the incredible artificial weather that Earthlings sometimes create for other Earthlings when they don’t want those other Earthlings to inhabit Earth any more. Shells were bursting in the treetops with terrific bangs, he said, showering down knives and needles and razorblades. Little lumps of lead in copper jackets were crisscrossing the woods under the shellbursts, zipping along much faster than sound.

A lot of people were being wounded or killed. So it goes.

n

With the protagonist Billy Pilgrim having come unstuck in time, experiencing the events of his life out of order, and getting abducted by aliens and shown in their zoo on Tralfamadore along the way, this is not exactly the most straight-forward anti-war novel you will ever read. But for all its extravagance, it reaches a state of clarity that not many authors can achieve. Vonnegut was indeed a unique talent.

n  

It is so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds.
And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like “Poo-tee-weet?

n


3.5 stars

This book is almost impossible to review. Hell, I'm not even sure how to shelve it. Considering a Vonnegutian shelf right now. But this might very well end up only containing Vonnegut books. Which would make it kind of pointless.

Kurt Vonnegut managed to write a book that's completely loose, all over the place and still manages to somehow make sense in the end. About what exactly, that is up to the reader.

It is shelved as Sci-Fi a lot. But although the main protagonist Billy Pilgrim is traveling back and forth in time and gets kidnapped by aliens (which leads to one of the most comical scenes I've ever read), I don't think it should be categorized as Science-Fiction.
I think it is a book about PTSD, as a result of Pilgrim witnessing the bombing of Dresden during World War II. Therefore the kidnapping and all the time-traveling doesn't really happen. His mind is just all over the place. The "structure" of the book used to emphasize this.
But then again, I might be completely wrong.

You really should experience it for yourself.
But be prepared for a read that might feel somewhat like a psychedelic trip.
Also, I'm sorry it is quite possible you will hate this book. But you might just as well love it.

The only thing I'm sure of is that Vonnegut was a unique talent.

I fell short of loving this particular book. But upon re-reading (which I will surely do someday) my rating really could go anywhere. Right now I just don't know.

So it goes.

One of the great novels of all time. As Vonnegut himself graded it, A+! Hilarious and languishingly sad and insightful and smart and wild. Vonnegut was there in Dresden when the allies destroyed that once beautiful city, and he writes this autobiographical novel to reflect on that terrible time, laced with science fiction and acidic humor and a kind of fatalism (or is it mock-fatalism?).

So it goes, Vonnegut famously writes, as if things just happen. He was traumatized by the war, and suicidal at times ever since in spite of his hilarious novels, but like Joseph Heller's Catch 22, it is one of the great anti-war novels of all time. And it's black comedy, both of them!

One of the very best books ever from one of our greatest writers.