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  • Still ruminating over this one... Kurt Vonnegut tells us that this is an anti-war novel, but it's not what you would expect. No preaching, no anguish, no weeping, no angry disavowals of war. The main character, Billy Pilgrim, gets unstuck in time and pilgrims through time and space. War as a defined ... Continue

    Still ruminating over this one... Kurt Vonnegut tells us that this is an anti-war novel, but it's not what you would expect. No preaching, no anguish, no weeping, no angry disavowals of war. The main character, Billy Pilgrim, gets unstuck in time and pilgrims through time and space. War as a defined moment in time slowly comes unravelled as Billy's war experience bleeds into and merges with the rest of his life. The absurdity of the ocean of war spills to the farthest shores where it wettens and is absorbed by the sands normal life, which is itself abnormal.

    Not really a novel to find meaning in, at least not the meaning of allegory. The jumps in chrnology can seem not worth it at the beginning, but read on to the end. It's more about the effect. A difficult but worthwhile book.

    

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• ― Josh Herr said on Dec 29, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Slaughterhouse-Five is one of the world's great antiwar books. An American classic. Centering on the infamous firebombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we fear most.

    

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• ― meganzing said on Sep 26, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • I've read this book three times. The first time was when I was 16. A huge influence on me as a writer and as a human being.

    

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• ― Brian Brock said on Aug 30, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • KV actually was one of the survivors of Dresden. I'm not sure if many of the young readers know this. I would also suggest reading "All Is Quiet On The Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque. It is a novel about the trench warfare of WWI--and was banned by Hitler because it painted the Germans in a ... Continue

    KV actually was one of the survivors of Dresden. I'm not sure if many of the young readers know this. I would also suggest reading "All Is Quiet On The Western Front" by Erich Maria Remarque. It is a novel about the trench warfare of WWI--and was banned by Hitler because it painted the Germans in a negative light (in his opinion).

    

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• ― darkwalker said on Jan 23, 2008 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Very interesting book, I'm glad I read it.

    

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• ― Savedr said on Oct 6, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

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  • Life-changing.

    

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• ― Chezmerelda said on Jun 27, 2007 about the Paperback edition| Add your feedback

General FictionLarge Print EditionBilly Pilgrim is the son of an American barber. He serves as a chaplains assistant in World War II, is captured by the Germans, and he survives the largest massacre in European history the fire bombing of Dresden. After the war Billy makes a great deal of money as an optometrist, and on his wedding night he is kidnapped by a flying saucer from the planet Tralfamadore. So begins a modern classic by a master storyteller.

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