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TK421's Reviews > Slaughterhouse-Five
Slaughterhouse-Five
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There are only a few books that I ever really try to revisit. Sherlock Holmes and his stories are one. Some Shakespeare. And Slaughterhouse-Five.
I have read this book every year since my first reading almost ten years ago. I read it as an undergraduate; I read it as a graduate student. I've written three or four papers about it. And, yes, I have tried to pawn this book off on as many people as I could over the years.
You see, this book does something to me whenever I read it. It takes me places. Sure there is the time travel, other-world element to the novel, but the places it takes me are not physical in nature. I can't rightly say that they are spiritual either. Basically, the best way I can describe it is where I am taken is if my heart, mind, soul, education, fears, desires, and dreams were all placed in a blender and set to liquefy. And then this slosh of material is constructed into whatever semblance of a structure can be created from this amalgam.
This novel gets me to question not only life, but what it means that I was the lucky sperm to reach the egg, or that I was the lucky egg that was implanted. Oh dear, I fear I am convoluting what it is I am trying to say.
Okay, here goes: This book questions war. It questions as to why humans feel it is imperative to destroy. It questions what it might be like to live a completely different life than the one you live now. But it doesn't try to give bullshit answers. In fact, it really doesn't try to give answers to anything. And since this book is based on actual experiences Vonnegut suffered during WWII, it might be better said that this novel is really a science fiction memoir.
Dammit, I am screwing this up. I cannot seem to say it is that I want to say.
Enough already! Read the book. Or don't read the book. I know what it does to me.
So it goes.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDEED
I have read this book every year since my first reading almost ten years ago. I read it as an undergraduate; I read it as a graduate student. I've written three or four papers about it. And, yes, I have tried to pawn this book off on as many people as I could over the years.
You see, this book does something to me whenever I read it. It takes me places. Sure there is the time travel, other-world element to the novel, but the places it takes me are not physical in nature. I can't rightly say that they are spiritual either. Basically, the best way I can describe it is where I am taken is if my heart, mind, soul, education, fears, desires, and dreams were all placed in a blender and set to liquefy. And then this slosh of material is constructed into whatever semblance of a structure can be created from this amalgam.
This novel gets me to question not only life, but what it means that I was the lucky sperm to reach the egg, or that I was the lucky egg that was implanted. Oh dear, I fear I am convoluting what it is I am trying to say.
Okay, here goes: This book questions war. It questions as to why humans feel it is imperative to destroy. It questions what it might be like to live a completely different life than the one you live now. But it doesn't try to give bullshit answers. In fact, it really doesn't try to give answers to anything. And since this book is based on actual experiences Vonnegut suffered during WWII, it might be better said that this novel is really a science fiction memoir.
Dammit, I am screwing this up. I cannot seem to say it is that I want to say.
Enough already! Read the book. Or don't read the book. I know what it does to me.
So it goes.
VERY HIGHLY RECOMMENDEED
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Reading Progress
Finished Reading
August 13, 2009
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Velvetink
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rated it 4 stars
May 13, 2011 07:30PM
Chance is everything? so it goes.
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Velvetink wrote: "Chance is everything? so it goes."A perfect summation.
I love this book.
SO NOT COOL I DIDNT REALLY LIKE THAT BOOK
I don't think you screwed up your review at all--I think you captured my feeling about this book very well. Good job!
Wanda wrote: "I don't think you screwed up your review at all--I think you captured my feeling about this book very well. Good job!"Thank you, Wanda.
Read it several times too, read all of Vonnegut, even the posthumous ones. Love his style, love the philosophy, love the humor even in the face of situations that defy it. High school teachers use this book to lure kids into critical thinking and into the love of reading - with a pretty high success rate.
"The Dude abides"; the cinematic equivolent of "So it goes" Both true and unchanging.Great book and fine movie treatment of the book. It is worth the effort if you can find it.
thank you for your honest and unique review. I am "nudged" to finally get to one I've neglected but wanted to read for too long. thanks thanks thanks:)
Robert you are correct, sir.Nancy I think you will really like it.
"But it doesn't try to give bullshit answers. In fact, it really doesn't try to give answers to anything."This is one of the main reasons you've got to respect Vonnegut. There are no simple conclusions and no easy endings. In fact there are no endings in this book at all. It just seems to stretch off in all directions.
C
