Slaughterhouse 5, or The Children's Crusade - A Duty-dance with Death - Softcover

Vonnegut, Kurt

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0099800209 ISBN 13: 9780099800200

Publisher: Vintage Classics, 1991

Synopsis

‘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.’ George Saunders

Prisoner of war, optometrist, time-traveller – these are the life roles of Billy Pilgrim, hero of this miraculously moving, bitter and funny story of innocence faced with apocalypse. Slaughterhouse Five is one of the world’s great anti-war books. Centring on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden in the Second World War, Billy Pilgrim’s odyssey through time reflects the journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.

‘An extraordinary success. A book to read and reread. He is a true artist’ New York Times Book Review

About this title

Review:

It took Vonnegut more than 20 years to put his Dresden experiences into words. He explained, "there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again." Slaughterhouse Five is a powerful novel incorporating a number of genres. Only those who have fought in wars can say whether it represents the experience well. However, what the novel does do is invite the reader to look at the absurdity of war. Human versus human, hedonist politicians pressing buttons and ordering millions to their deaths all for ideologies many cannot even comprehend. Flicking between the US, 1940's Germany and Tralfamadore, Vonnegut's semi- autobiographical protagonist Billy Pilgrim finds himself very lost. One minute he is being viewed as a specimen in a Tralfamadorian Zoo, the next he is wandering a post-apocalyptic city looking for corpses. Slaughterhouse Five-Or The Children's Crusade A Duty-Dance with Death is a remarkable blend of black humour, irony, the truth and the absurd. The author regards his work a "failure", millions of readers do not. Released the same time bombs were falling on South East Asia, this title caused controversy and awakening. Essential reading for all. So it goes. --Jon Smith

Review:

"Marvellous...the writing is pungent, the antics uproarious, the humour suitably black, the wit sharp as a hypodermic" (Daily Telegraph)

"Mr Vonnegut knows a great deal about what is probably the largest massacre in modern history - the fire-bombing of Dresden in 1945. Slaughterhouse Five is a reaction to the event by one of our most gifted and incisive novelists. A work of keen literary artistry" (Joseph Heller, author of 'Catch-22')

"The individuality of Vonnegut's style is a curious yet perfect match for the pain of the emotional content. A humane, human book that always remains a work of art rather than biography, no matter how apparent the author's presence" (Kate Atkinson)

"Unique...one of the writers who map our landscapes for us, who give names to the places we know best" (Doris Lessing)

"There are writers who create a lot of readers, and there are writers who create a lot of writers, and Vonnegut was both" (Jonathan Safran Foer)

About this edition

• Publisher: Vintage Classics
• Publication date: 1991
• ISBN 10: 0099800209
• ISBN 13: 9780099800200
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 192