Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade

About this book

This 25th anniversary edition of Slaughterhouse-Five introduces Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow him simultaneously thru all his life's phases, concentrating on his (& Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an prisoner of war who witnesses the Dresden firebombing. Don't let ease of reading fool you--Vonnegut's isn't a conventional or simple novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, & almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, & so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters..." Slaughterhouse-Five, named from the building where the POWs were held, isn't only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it's as important as any written since '45. Like Catch-22, it fashions the author's WWII experiences into an eloquent plea against butchery in authority's service. It boasts the same imaginative humanity & gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in his other works, but the book's basis in fact gives it a uniquely poignant humor.