Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel

4.4 4.4 out of 5 stars | 34,178 ratings

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Last update: 05-28-2024


About this item

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.”

More than 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.

From the Publisher

All this happened, more or less.

Like so many Americans, she was trying to construct a life that made sense…

I have this disease late at night sometimes, involving alcohol and the telephone.

So it goes

The New York Times says, “Very tough and very funny … very Vonnegut.”

Life says, “A funny book at which you are not permitted to laugh, a sad book without tears.”

Los Angeles Times says, “Funny, satirical, compelling, outrageous, fanciful, mordant, fecund.”

Explore more of Kurt Vonnegut’s Library
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“A free-wheeling vehicle . . . an unforgettable ride!”—The New York Times “Marvelous . . . [Vonnegut] wheels out all the complaints about America and makes them seem fresh, funny, outrageous, hateful and lovable.”—The New York Times “[Kurt Vonnegut’s] best book . . . He dares not only ask the ultimate question about the meaning of life, but to answer it.”—Esquire “Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer . . . a zany but moral mad scientist.”—Time “[Vonnegut] at his wildest best.”—The New York Times Book Review A collection of Kurt Vonnegut’s shorter works. “There are twenty-five stories here, and each hits a nerve ending.”—The Charlotte Observer

Top reviews from the United States

Scott Semegran
5.0 out of 5 stars What a weird and quirky novel
Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2021
I read this novel as a young man and again later in my 30s. I thought I'd give it another read to see if it's as strange as I'd remembered. What a weird and quirky novel. Part war story, part science fiction, and part bizarro, observational comedy, I couldn't explain it concisely if I tried. The disparate plot (what little there is) tells the strange life of Billy Pilgrim, a WWII veteran who lived through the bombing of Dresden, one of the most horrific events of WWII. But he soon becomes "unstuck in time" and we careen back and forth throughout his life: his time as an optometrist, his time in WWII, the time he was abducted by aliens called Tralfamadorians, who see the entirety of time all at once. Strange story. Is Billy’s unstuck state an analogy for insanity? Could be. Vonnegut (he is the narrator of the novel and appears in the Dresden part of the story) tells this strange story with an empathetic lilt as he retells many of the disturbing events that Billy and the other characters endure, punctuating any mention of death with his well-known phrase, "So it goes."

Since the Tralfamadorians see time as a whole and not in a linear fashion, I imagine that’s how Vonnegut approached this story. Told in sections that are out of order (literally and figuratively), the one thing that is a constant is Vonnegut’s narrative voice. How to describe it? Silly, empathetic, philosophical, observant, whimsical, searing, unapologetic. A hilariously observant passage finds Billy Pilgrim in a train car filled with war prisoners during WWII. He’s sitting next to a hobo who is not a prisoner; he’s just on the train for the ride. The train car is filthy, despondent, cold, and the prisoners are hungry, tired, dejected. The hobo tells Billy, “This ain’t bad. This ain’t nothing at all.” It’s all in your perspective, Vonnegut seems to offer the reader. So it goes.

I thoroughly enjoyed this novel and I highly recommend it. I would give this novel 5 stars.
Ryan Sean O'Reilly
4.0 out of 5 stars Post-traumatic stress, time-twisting alien abductions, mid-life crisis meltdowns, and a meta-story on life.
Reviewed in the United States on July 2, 2015
There are a few plot threads in this book, but they all weave around the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim. The stories converge on Pilgrim from various times in his life. Having been abducted by aliens, the protagonist jaunts back and forth through various experiences of his life in a non-linear fashion. This might seem jarring, but Vonnegut’s straight-forward writing style makes the whole experience very manageable—no slogging through the muck here.

From a science fiction perspective, the book has some neat passages about time travel, the fourth dimension and how life would be if time was perceived as a nonlinear experience. The result, in Vonnegut’s opinion, is a sort of melancholy yet content, fatalistic attitude.

Contrasting Pilgrim’s time traveling adventure is the ever-present sense of claustrophobia. The protagonist is captured during World War II (as the actual author was in real life) and loses control of his mobility as a prisoner of war. He is also held in an exhibit at a “zoo” on a faraway planet, where he can be gawked at by the local alien population. In other scenes, while convalescing, he is bed-bound at a hospital. At times, Pilgrim expresses feeling trapped in his career as an optometrist and his marriage. Even as a widow, his daughter is constantly challenging his freedom. The time-travel experiences seem to be the only thing that transport Pilgrim out of these feelings, and give him a broader perspective.

The aliens (Tralfamadorians) have a completely different perspective on time. They know all the horrible parts of life and all the good parts at once. They can cope with the bad by focusing on the good. Many parallels can be drawn between this and dealing with combat trauma.

The jumping around of the plot, feels like flashbacks and sometimes there are flashbacks. However, there is also time-travel. The disjointed narrative seems to emulate symptoms of post-traumatic stress disorder, which the character is experiencing and the reader is brought into (due to the structure of the book). Stories within stories, within stories hopping back and forth over Pilgrim’s timeline.

Yet, there is a cohesive story underlying all the shifts in time and space. The framework of a life. And, maybe that’s what life is. A series of disjointed events that might not make sense individually, but when put together form an arc. When focus is pulled back and perspective is given, the entire story can be realized.

While reading this book, it is hard not to think about how the author might have felt, surviving a horrific bombing in WWII as a POW “trapped” underground in a slaughter house. A situation Vonnegut was also not in control of, yet one that was deemed to be his own. Is this book trying to make sense of that experience—or perhaps the experience of all people caught in war?

There is much made of this being an anti-war book, and certainly there is that aspect within the pages. Yet, the storyline, to me, seemed to be more along the lines of pointing out that in life, sometimes things are just really really really messed up. Sometimes things are bad and the reasons are not always so simple and straightforward or make a lot sense. Lines blur. Lives are lost. Vonnegut doesn’t seem to say we should not care about this. Instead, he seems to say that we must recognize these difficulties and give them there due. Reflect on them. Perhaps try to do better. Focus on the good.

As others have noted, this story is told in Vonnegut’s characteristic style of simple declarative sentences. A breeze to read. And yet his writing is a perfect compliment to this non-linear device of story-telling. Billy Pilgrim comes unstuck in time, and you will too as you read this thoughtful tale of dark reflective humor.

Podcast: If you enjoy my review (or this topic) this book and the movie based on it were further discussed/debated in a lively discussion on my podcast: "No Deodorant In Outer Space". The podcast is available on iTunes, YouTube or our website.
P. M. Bradshaw
5.0 out of 5 stars Beautiful and sorrowful.
Reviewed in the United States on May 8, 2024
This book is brilliant and beautiful. It resonates not and utter sorrow. It is somehow simple, and at the same time, complex. It's about living g in the aftermath of war and despair.
Everyone should read this book at least once in their life.
Amazon Customer
5.0 out of 5 stars I absolutely loved this book!
Reviewed in the United States on May 26, 2024
I wasn’t sure I was going to like this book. It was sort of a book within a book. It starts off with a writer, who I assume was Vonnegut, suffering from writers block. Unable to write about his experiences during WW2, especially the bombing at Dresden, which he witnessed. He complained of having very little recollection of his time in the war. He consulted a friend to see if his experiences dragged his memory. But ended up upsetting the man’s wife, who believed he’d glamorized the experience. After reassuring her he wouldn’t, he delivered to his editor the story of Billy Pilgrim. This is we’re our story takes off. With Billy, a man unstuck from time. The book jumped back and forth through Billy’s life. We saw what shaped the man he would become. His experiences before, during and after the war. Billy was a very unreliable narrator. We didn’t know if this was all a hallucination of his mind. At one point we learn he was kidnapped by 4th dimensional aliens who kept him in a zoo. At the same time he was obsessed with Science Fiction books that depicted the exact same scenario he described. The book was great. Whether, Tralfalmadorians really did kidnap him or not is not clear, but what is clear is that Kurt Vonnegut was an incredible writer.
Danny
3.0 out of 5 stars Boring
Reviewed in the United States on May 5, 2024
The book comes in great shape, however, the book is very boring, confusing, and tiring to finish. If you enjoy sci-fi this is your book but if you don’t, do not purchase.
Bob A.
5.0 out of 5 stars Great read: entertaining and thought provoking
Reviewed in the United States on April 14, 2024
I love Vonnegut’s style of writing. Creates interesting characters and weaves a great storyline. Has a very creative mind. I’ll read more of his books.

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