Slaughterhouse-Five (Magill Book Reviews)
At a glance:
- Author: Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.
- First Published: 1969
- Type of Work: Novel
- Genres: Long fiction, Psychological fiction, Science fiction
- Subjects: 1950’s, 1960’s, 1970’s, New York, North America or North Americans, Northeast, U.S., United States or Americans, Twentieth century, Other worlds, 1940’s, World War II, 1920’s, 1930’s, Time travel, Bombs, Prophecy or prophets, Germany or German people, Time, Aliens, space
- Locales: Ilium, NY, Cape Cod, MA, Dresden, Germany
Like Vonnegut, who speaks in his own voice in several places to confirm that much of the novel is based on his wartime experiences, Billy Pilgrim lives through the firebombing of Dresden during World War II. From the beginning of the book, war is presented as both comically and horrifyingly absurd. Billy and his comrades, American and German, are ludicrously inept as soldiers. As the subtitle of the novel indicates, they are children on a gamelike crusade, manipulated by inscrutable forces.
Yet the game is deadly: The destruction of Dresden, a city of no strategic importance,...
[The entire page is 631 words long]
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