Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
Slaughterhouse-Five
Synopsis:
Slaughterhous-Five is one of the world's great anti-war books. Centering on the infamous fire-bombing of Dresden, Billy Pilgrim's odyssey through time reflects the mythic journey of our own fractured lives as we search for meaning in what we are afraid to know.
Review:
I have never read Vonnegut before this. I didn't really know what I was getting myself into, and I think that is why I did not enjoy this book as much as others. I was expecting something to happen, to learn about he Dresden bombing, and I really didn't. I waited 80% of the book for something that seemed like it could be anti-war, and then once I got to the last 20% I thought oh, okay. I see it now. I know it is satire, but I didn't see the anti-war message for most of the story.
There were two things that annoyed me so much with the writing style in this book. First was the breaking up of the story into little tiny sections, only a few paragraphs long. I am not sure why the author did that, but they were not necessary. Most of the time you could have just read straight through multiple sections as one scene, but instead it was broken up into pieces. It felt like I had ADD or something, like the reader cannot focus for more than two seconds and drove me crazy. It kept me from really being able to get into the story since I had to pause every two seconds.
The second things that annoyed me was the "So it goes" after anything, living or non, that dies. Campaign bubbles died, "So it goes". Person died, "So it goes". Anything dies, "So it goes". It was so repetitive and just annoyed me. I know he could have been trying to point out every time something dies so we really acknowledge it or something, but to me I just couldn't get pasted it. It was in the story over 100 times and it just drove me crazy.
The story itself I was really confused by. The time travel, the aliens, the small snippets of what happened to Billy Pilgrim all just made me think okay...I didn't really like any of the characters in the story either. Billy was so passive with everything in his life he just kind of bumbled around doing nothing. It was just a strange story for me, but I didn't realize this going into it. I just knew it was about the Dresden bombing, and I was waiting the entire book for that to happen. It was an odd read, but I think I might give it another try in a little bit. I might enjoy it more now that I am not going in with the same expectations. Now that I know what I am getting into maybe it will be better. We shall see. Such an odd book.
Rating: 2/5
There were two things that annoyed me so much with the writing style in this book. First was the breaking up of the story into little tiny sections, only a few paragraphs long. I am not sure why the author did that, but they were not necessary. Most of the time you could have just read straight through multiple sections as one scene, but instead it was broken up into pieces. It felt like I had ADD or something, like the reader cannot focus for more than two seconds and drove me crazy. It kept me from really being able to get into the story since I had to pause every two seconds.
The second things that annoyed me was the "So it goes" after anything, living or non, that dies. Campaign bubbles died, "So it goes". Person died, "So it goes". Anything dies, "So it goes". It was so repetitive and just annoyed me. I know he could have been trying to point out every time something dies so we really acknowledge it or something, but to me I just couldn't get pasted it. It was in the story over 100 times and it just drove me crazy.
The story itself I was really confused by. The time travel, the aliens, the small snippets of what happened to Billy Pilgrim all just made me think okay...I didn't really like any of the characters in the story either. Billy was so passive with everything in his life he just kind of bumbled around doing nothing. It was just a strange story for me, but I didn't realize this going into it. I just knew it was about the Dresden bombing, and I was waiting the entire book for that to happen. It was an odd read, but I think I might give it another try in a little bit. I might enjoy it more now that I am not going in with the same expectations. Now that I know what I am getting into maybe it will be better. We shall see. Such an odd book.
Rating: 2/5
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