eBook, 189 pages
English language
Published Dec. 31, 1968
A special fiftieth anniversary edition of Kurt Vonnegut’s masterpiece, “a desperate, painfully honest attempt to confront the monstrous crimes of the twentieth century” (Time), featuring a new introduction by Kevin Powers, author of the National Book Award finalist The Yellow Birds Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he …
A special fiftieth anniversary edition of Kurt Vonnegut’s masterpiece, “a desperate, painfully honest attempt to confront the monstrous crimes of the twentieth century” (Time), featuring a new introduction by Kevin Powers, author of the National Book Award finalist The Yellow Birds Selected by the Modern Library as one of the 100 best novels of all time Slaughterhouse-Five, an American classic, is one of the world’s great antiwar books. Centering on the infamous World War II firebombing of Dresden, the novel is the result of what Kurt Vonnegut described as a twenty-three-year struggle to write a book about what he had witnessed as an American prisoner of war. It combines historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire in an account of the life of Billy Pilgrim, a barber’s son turned draftee turned optometrist turned alien abductee. As Vonnegut had, Billy experiences the destruction of Dresden as a POW. Unlike Vonnegut, he experiences time travel, or coming “unstuck in time.” An instant bestseller, Slaughterhouse-Five made Kurt Vonnegut a cult hero in American literature, a reputation that only strengthened over time, despite his being banned and censored by some libraries and schools for content and language. But it was precisely those elements of Vonnegut’s writing—the political edginess, the genre-bending inventiveness, the frank violence, the transgressive wit—that have inspired generations of readers not just to look differently at the world around them but to find the confidence to say something about it. Authors as wide-ranging as Norman Mailer, John Irving, Michael Crichton, Tim O’Brien, Margaret Atwood, Elizabeth Strout, David Sedaris, Jennifer Egan, and J. K. Rowling have all found inspiration in Vonnegut’s words. Jonathan Safran Foer has described Vonnegut as “the kind of writer who made people—young people especially—want to write.” George Saunders has declared Vonnegut to be “the great, urgent, passionate American writer of our century, who offers us . . . a model of the kind of compassionate thinking that might yet save us from ourselves.” Fifty years after its initial publication at the height of the Vietnam War, Vonnegut's portrayal of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar anxiety feels as relevant, darkly humorous, and profoundly affecting as ever, an enduring beacon through our own era’s uncertainties. “Poignant and hilarious, threaded with compassion and, behind everything, the cataract of a thundering moral statement.”—The Boston Globe
An incredible and innovative book full of wisdom, humor, purpose, and the kind of writing that makes you feel like the author is sitting by your side telling you the story. I was sad for it to come to an end. So it goes.
Da avvicinare alla Trilogia della Città di K. Incomprensibile per gli umani.
Da avvicinare alla Trilogia della Città di K. Incomprensibile per gli umani.
Attraverso l'alter-ego di Billy Pilgrim, Vonnegut, elabora un racconto autobiografico sull'esperienza terribile della Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Da leggere assolutamente.
Attraverso l'alter-ego di Billy Pilgrim, Vonnegut, elabora un racconto autobiografico sull'esperienza terribile della Seconda Guerra Mondiale. Da leggere assolutamente.
It's a little embarrassing to confess that I'd never read Vonnegut. That's not true. I read Harrison Bergeron in some sort of enrichment reader in 6th grade. I thought that was pretty great, and the only story I remember fondly from that age outside of an Edgar Allen Poe collection that I probably read until the cover came off, and then read again. Somehow I always expected this book to be some kind of hippie acid trip because the people I knew growing up who read it had black light posters and blew smoke into their iguanas' faces to give them a contact high. I did not expect the book to be about WWII, to play with time the way it did, or to make me cry, not for anything in particular, but just a little catharsis for a moment after the book was finished. The book is lively and …
It's a little embarrassing to confess that I'd never read Vonnegut. That's not true. I read Harrison Bergeron in some sort of enrichment reader in 6th grade. I thought that was pretty great, and the only story I remember fondly from that age outside of an Edgar Allen Poe collection that I probably read until the cover came off, and then read again. Somehow I always expected this book to be some kind of hippie acid trip because the people I knew growing up who read it had black light posters and blew smoke into their iguanas' faces to give them a contact high. I did not expect the book to be about WWII, to play with time the way it did, or to make me cry, not for anything in particular, but just a little catharsis for a moment after the book was finished. The book is lively and readable, and feels at all points as though you've read it before, but can still be utterly disarming, especially when humor gives way to Vonnegut's most humane or damning observations.
I liked how Vonnegut manages to tell a poignant war story in a gentle way, without any attempt to glorify anything or anyone. I guess this became a classic because it makes people reflect on their values and their approach to life. And maybe even prompt them to question their own views. To do the above through a novel in a gentle way is the accomplishment of this book.
This is my first Vonnegut novel. When I was reading it, I was surprised how much Douglas Adams' (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) style was influenced by Vonnegut.
I liked how Vonnegut manages to tell a poignant war story in a gentle way, without any attempt to glorify anything or anyone. I guess this became a classic because it makes people reflect on their values and their approach to life. And maybe even prompt them to question their own views. To do the above through a novel in a gentle way is the accomplishment of this book.
This is my first Vonnegut novel. When I was reading it, I was surprised how much Douglas Adams' (Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy) style was influenced by Vonnegut.
Slaughterhouse Five is a fictional story based on the real bombing of Dresden at the end of World War II. Telling much more than that would ruin the story.
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it's full of dry humor and quite funny. On the other it's extremely hard and though to read the graphic details of the bombings that served no apparent reason, killed many people and destroyed a beautiful city.
In the end, I think it's a must read, the time traveling may not be your cup of tea, but it's a raw book about the total uselessness of war and I hope people learn from it.
Slaughterhouse Five is a fictional story based on the real bombing of Dresden at the end of World War II. Telling much more than that would ruin the story.
I have mixed feelings about this book. On the one hand it's full of dry humor and quite funny. On the other it's extremely hard and though to read the graphic details of the bombings that served no apparent reason, killed many people and destroyed a beautiful city.
In the end, I think it's a must read, the time traveling may not be your cup of tea, but it's a raw book about the total uselessness of war and I hope people learn from it.
Yes, this book is weird and hard to follow. I found myself wishing for an English professor to guide me through meaning and symbolism. Still, this is as good a time as any to read an anti-war novel, with the US roiling from an acrimonious election and a harsh division among our citizens. All I can say is that, if war creates Billy Pilgrims, I want nothing of it.
Last time I read it I didn't think so much of it. I don't know why. Could be the translation, as I am not an English speaker.
That said, found this time the book is so sad, and the story becomes tired of itself. Of the ridiculousness of all: war, time travel, optometry. Well, not optometry, but the thing with social classes and money and how that is how you are someone in life.
I found it sad. Furiously sad. I finished not twenty minutes ago and went to google Dresden and bombings. The stupidity of war (the second one, for that matter) it is something I've been trying to understand myself. The amount of casualties, the ruins. The fact that people tried people as if they were worse than animals (and, definitely, animals don't deserve the treatment they get).
Well, I'm not talking about the book. Or I am. …
Last time I read it I didn't think so much of it. I don't know why. Could be the translation, as I am not an English speaker.
That said, found this time the book is so sad, and the story becomes tired of itself. Of the ridiculousness of all: war, time travel, optometry. Well, not optometry, but the thing with social classes and money and how that is how you are someone in life.
I found it sad. Furiously sad. I finished not twenty minutes ago and went to google Dresden and bombings. The stupidity of war (the second one, for that matter) it is something I've been trying to understand myself. The amount of casualties, the ruins. The fact that people tried people as if they were worse than animals (and, definitely, animals don't deserve the treatment they get).
Well, I'm not talking about the book. Or I am. This time it got me good.
Vůbec mi nesedl styl, kterým je kniha napsána a dost těžko jsem se jí prokousával. Tak to chodí.
