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A review by zoe_271
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
fast-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? Character
- Strong character development? It's complicated
- Loveable characters? No
- Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
- Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes
4.0
To anybody wishing to ingest a quick, yet intensely meaningful story, to be amused and provoked simultaneously - give Slaughterhouse-Five a read. Vonnegut's blunt, short and sharp style pairs impeccably with the disjointed nature of the narrative, following Billy Pilgrim, who has come unstuck in time.
We see a non-glamorised side of World War Two. Billy doesn't face any combat, or win any medals - he's captured before doing much of anything, imprisoned, and we see the truth that many men faced in the war - awful conditions, forced labour, and boredom ruling. The firebombing of Dresden is the climax of the novel, Billy reminiscing on it in the future and looking ahead to it from the past, the omniscient narrator too reminding us that 'he was there.'
Billy's life is dotted with interesting characters that Vonnegut makes stick even in their small scenes. Every line of dialogue lets us know who these people are, and every person serves a purpose - an old historian who needs to disparage others and marry young girls to feel powerful, a soldier who lives to seek revenge or a poor, too-caring colonel who wants people to come to see him in his home town.
I don't think I would recommend Slaughterhouse-Five as a first Vonnegut read, as Vonnegut's style takes some adapting to, in the course of which I believe some meaning could be lost. It certainly is a necessary, pivotal read though, central to the discussion about war, how we frame it, and how it affects us. And so it goes.
We see a non-glamorised side of World War Two. Billy doesn't face any combat, or win any medals - he's captured before doing much of anything, imprisoned, and we see the truth that many men faced in the war - awful conditions, forced labour, and boredom ruling. The firebombing of Dresden is the climax of the novel, Billy reminiscing on it in the future and looking ahead to it from the past, the omniscient narrator too reminding us that 'he was there.'
Billy's life is dotted with interesting characters that Vonnegut makes stick even in their small scenes. Every line of dialogue lets us know who these people are, and every person serves a purpose - an old historian who needs to disparage others and marry young girls to feel powerful, a soldier who lives to seek revenge or a poor, too-caring colonel who wants people to come to see him in his home town.
I don't think I would recommend Slaughterhouse-Five as a first Vonnegut read, as Vonnegut's style takes some adapting to, in the course of which I believe some meaning could be lost. It certainly is a necessary, pivotal read though, central to the discussion about war, how we frame it, and how it affects us. And so it goes.
Content Warnings
Graphic: War