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by: Kurt Vonnegut  Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54 EAN: 9780886464950 Edition: Unabridged Format: Unabridged ISBN: 0886464951 Label: DH Audio Manufacturer: DH Audio Number Of Items: 2 Publication Date: 1999-06 Publisher: DH Audio Studio: DH Audio Related Items: Alternate Versions: Click to Display Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display Editorial Review: Amazon.com Review: Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden. Don't let the ease of reading fool you--Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "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..." Slaughterhouse-Five (taken from the name of the building where the POWs were held) is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch- 22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy--and humor. Product Description: Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes 'unstuck in time' after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden. Slaughterhouse-Five is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is also as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch-22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it unique poignancy -- and humor. Average Rating:
 Rating:  - So unique that a true review is difficult. So it goes.Slaughterhouse five is one of those great anti-war books in the 60's that is really hard to describe, so I'll make it quick. It tells about Billy Pilgrim, who 'time travels' to many points of his life, including the bombing of Dresden. He also gets kidnapped by aliens and learns about their way of life. Embedded in the whacky, realistic narraration is a message about war and life itself. I can't say much about it except that it's a must-read before you die. Rating: - Shell ShockedAn amazing story that pulls the reader through time and back again. Story fragments shuffled in time. Escaping to the future, being in the present. Then always coming back to the war. Highly recommended. Rating: - A MasterpieceVonnegut has penned a celebration of the anti-hero, the story of an unwitting man who takes a winding, chronologically non-linear dash through the space/time continuum. Billy Pilgrim experiences combat in Europe during World War II while simultaneously experiencing life as a successful optometrist in Ilium, New York twenty years later. Complexity to complexity, in 1967, Billy is kidnapped by aliens and kept captive in a zoo on the planet Tralfamadore, naked and with a porn star for his cellmate. ... Read More Rating:  - Not as anti-war as I was led to believeThis book is about Billy, a pitiful loser who sleepwalks his way through WWII. Through weaving chronology we see the negative effects the war had on his ability to deal with reality. From the other reviews I was expecting a strong missive against war, along the likes of 1984, but instead Vonnegut's thoughts about war is rather ho-hum and tame. The war gets second billing to Billy's story and the description of Dresden's bombing gets less description than you can find in its Wikipedia entry. ... Read More Rating: - On Another LevelSomewhere in the first chapter (or maybe the second, if you are convinced that the first chapter is a foreword), it dawns on you: this is not normal. The main character is not dynamic. There is no real, driving conflict. There is no escalation, nor any other conventional literary mechanism used to move the story. That would probably be the best word to describe Vonnegut: anticonventional. What follows is a masterful tale the likes of which we may never see again. The sublime tones combine with ... Read More 
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