Reviews with content warning for Violence - Slaughterhouse-Five

This book was weird. But in a good way? I really don't know how else to describe it. I went in thinking this was just about experiences during WWII, but there was so much more. For example, I didn't expect aliens. So that was surprising! I feel like this book was about a lot of things while also being about almost nothing in terms of the apathetic life led by Billy Pilgrim. It's very unconventional, and I think that pairs well with the messages I thought Vonnegut was trying to convey. The discussions about the "necessity" of war and the descriptions of a decimated city felt eerily similar to the current tragedies occurring in Ukraine. As Billy would say, "So it goes." It's not a long book, so why not take the time to read it? As the Tralfamadorians would explain to you, time really isn't as sequential as we humans think it is.

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rubelube's review against another edition

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adventurous dark emotional funny mysterious reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? Yes
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

Op voorhand wist ik enkel dat Kurt Vonnegut dit boek had gebruikt om zijn ervaringen in Dresden te delen. Daarom was ik ook best verbaasd toen Billy Pilgrim

een tijdsreiziger bleek te zijn die ook ontvoerd wordt door aliens.

Echter geen onaangename verrassing. Vonnegut kan dankzij die tools mooi zijn verhaal brengen. Fantastisch anti-oorlogsboek. Putin zou het eens moeten lezen.

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_morgan's review against another edition

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adventurous challenging dark funny reflective medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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vikingvisuals's review against another edition

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challenging dark reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

For years I had always enjoyed the small bits and pieces of Vonnegut that I read and for years had always intended to actually read one of his books in full. Given his presence at the Writer's Workshop of my alma mater, their was always a weird sense of undeserving pride I felt with that association and such a feeling deserved proper investigation years ago. Anyway, this is the first full book of Vonnegut I have read and I am kicking myself for not having done myself the favor sooner.

If someone asked me to explain Slaughterhouse-Five, I am not sure how I would go about it or if it would even been possible. Describing the writing style and the plot seems an impossible challenge. "It's a book reflecting his experiences in WWII and his witnessing the bombing of Dresden" just barely scratches the service. It has so many things going on: sci-fi elements, time-travel, adventure, political commentary, etc. Some of which are barely touched upon yet somehow still hold a large weight.

Surely one thing the book is not is a typical novel with a clear storyline. Reading it you are taken on an adventure not due to the plot, but due to the diverse shifts in time and place. Having some understanding of trauma and PTSD, reading this book sort of transported me into the very mind of Vonnegut, errr... Billy Pilgrim and his experiences.

The sudden teleportation through various timeline brings up emotions of survivors of war being brought back to a traumatic experience from even the seemingly simplistic of triggers. When going back to the experiences of WWII in the book, often it seems the knowledge of experiences that happened to Billy Pilgrim after WWII are also present, reflecting potential new interpretations or emotions becoming attached to a memory upon its further inspection.

War and death in this book do not seem super "vivid" in a way that I can't quite describe. Certainly there are scenes that are graphic, but these scenes are often combined with shockingly beautiful descriptions. But I don't think that alone is the reason for this feeling, more-so that the perspective of Billy Pilgrim conveys the feeling survivors of war themselves develop towards death. It becomes a constant of sorts throughout the book. With each death being marked by the Traflmadorian "So it goes" it becomes clear that each occurrence of death is both very much present and recognized whilst still being so 'insignificant' that a simple 'so it goes' becomes the only way to process it.

Billy Pilgrim being described so negatively and weak yet surviving while other more "fit" characters perish brings the sense of the futility of war and the complete randomness / luck involved in it. It is not something you see in typical action movies where the strong and "good" survive while the weaker and "bad" perish, yet it very much is a feeling veterans often cope with, having seen countless friends killed right next to them while they survive.

This book has so many layers and I feel like if (or better said, when) I read this again, I may uncover a new understanding or a new interpretation of it.

One thing to me that was also quite jarring is how Vonnegut can manage to make you laugh in one sentence only to make you somehow feel guilty about it in the very next one. Or as stated above even with oddly beautiful descriptions of terrifying scenes. I really loved the writing style and surrealistic descriptions.

Other reviewers have also mentioned it, but the hardest part for me was also the attitude/descriptions of women in the book revolving around them as little more than sexual objects. That alone is an aspect of the book that I am still struggling with, as so many other aspects of the book were so great in my eyes that it makes you feel a bit uneasy loving them and the overall book itself so much.

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