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Slaughterhouse 5, or The Children's Crusade - A Duty-dance with Death
 
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Slaughterhouse 5, or The Children's Crusade - A Duty-dance with Death (Paperback)

by Kurt Vonnegut (Author)
4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
RRP: £7.99
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Customers buy this book with Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

Slaughterhouse 5, or The Children's Crusade - A Duty-dance with Death + Breakfast of Champions
  • This item: Slaughterhouse 5, or The Children's Crusade - A Duty-dance with Death by Kurt Vonnegut

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Product details

  • Paperback: 176 pages
  • Publisher: Vintage; New edition edition (17 Oct 1991)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0099800209
  • ISBN-13: 978-0099800200
  • Product Dimensions: 19.3 x 13 x 1.8 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 4.5 out of 5 stars See all reviews (40 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 463 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

    Popular in these categories:

    #1 in  Books > History > World History > World War II 1939-1945 > Origins
    #1 in  Books > Science Fiction & Fantasy > Authors, A-Z > V > Vonnegut, Kurt
    #1 in  Books > Fiction > 20th Century Classics > Vonnegut Jr., Kurt

Product Description

Amazon.co.uk 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

Product Description
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 5" 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.

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Slaughterhouse 5, or The Children's Crusade - A Duty-dance with Death 4.5 out of 5 stars (40)
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Customer Reviews

40 Reviews
5 star:
 (30)
4 star:
 (4)
3 star:
 (4)
2 star:
 (1)
1 star:
 (1)
 
 
 
 
 
Average Customer Review
4.5 out of 5 stars (40 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
19 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars A short masterpiece, 15 Jun 2001
By Penguin Egg (London, England) - See all my reviews
(TOP 1000 REVIEWER)   
Slaughterhouse 5 is every bit as good as it's reputation suggests. It is witty, observant, humane, and clever. Vonnegut writes in a deceptively simple prose, but which must have been difficult to have pulled off: namely, the way the story flits from the present to the past and to the future, very often in a single page, but manages to do it without disturbing the effortless flow of the narrative. No mean trick for a writer. A favourite book of mine. I can also recommend some of his earlier books: The Sirens of Titan; Piano Player; Mother Night, and Player Piano. His later books are not so hot; but Slaughterhouse 5 is his masterpiece. Like Heller's Catch 22, with which it has something in common, it is fun to read.
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17 of 17 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Absurdities, 5 Jun 2006
By M. Moran - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
Taught now in English classes as a post-modern sketch of the absurdity of war, this novel uses a collage of techniques and genres--science fiction, episodic storytelling, Absurdism, memoir--to get its point across.

It's point can still be missed, however. War is fought by children, Vonnegut explains, caught up in something that they often do not understand. Therein lay the absurdity. Vonnegut's own personal history, captured and held in Dresden during the bombing, allowed him firsthand to witness the devastation war can bring. Ideologies are transient, he realizes. And the destruction of one of the most beautiful European cities and the deaths of 24,000 human beings had a profound effect on him. What is the point? Examine the purpose of life. What is it?

The story demands the reader to ask questions of him/herself.

Also, the impact this book has had on literature can't be ignored. In an earlier review, the stylistic similarities to Adams and Irving, both who followed Vonnegut and so were obviously influenced, was mentioned. That's important. You can trace a number of modern satirists to Vonnegut--Palahniuk being my own personal favorite.

Whether you agree with Vonnegut's stance on war as absurd or not, Slaughterhouse-Five is worth a careful reading.
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10 of 10 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars Mustard Gas & Roses Indeed..., 24 Feb 2008
As someone currently living in Dresden, I always suggest visitors read this novel before coming for a visit. This city has many scars still to show from the bombings and subsequent fires, but for getting to the heart of what happened here... the true scope & terror of it... I feel nothing compares to Slaughterhouse 5.

As if that weren't enough, Vonnegut intersperses fact with fiction, history with humor, and the results are sublime. If you're not a fan going in, I bet you will be coming out.

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Most Recent Customer Reviews

4.0 out of 5 stars War, Aliens, Time Travel, Optometrists. Brilliant
Poignant, ironic and chock full of dry wit, Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse Five is a must read for fans of near all genres - there's war, aliens, time travel and more. Read more
Published 18 days ago by J. Green

5.0 out of 5 stars multi layerd, time traveling experiance.
I have just finished this book, and although i thought i understood what was going on i feel i need to read it sevral times more. Read more
Published 2 months ago by Falrah Mintoar

5.0 out of 5 stars A difficult but worthwhile read
A short but very, very interesting read. Vonnegut's ambitious book is about the horrors of war; it's also about mental illness; it's a harrowing and tragic read; it's also a... Read more
Published 4 months ago by Mr. Stuart Bruce

5.0 out of 5 stars The Chosen One
I have recently embarked on a quest to read the fifty great American novels. (I'm on book thirty one) Slaughtehouse 5 was in good company - Portnoy's Complaint, Rabbit Run, In... Read more
Published 8 months ago by So It Goes

1.0 out of 5 stars Why all the fuss?
I bought this book on the basis of the rave reviews. I wish I hadn't. Although it is short I couldn't force myself to get past half-way - if there is something clever or... Read more
Published 8 months ago by A. Clark

5.0 out of 5 stars Realities of War
Catch 22 exposes the ruthless realities of war and subsequently the harsh realities of life, as the novel depicts war as a microcosm of life itself. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Mr. N. J. Gutteridge

3.0 out of 5 stars Didn't Live up to Expectation
It bored me half to death. Slow moving, uninteresting, frustrating and somewhat confusing. Would have been better if the writer had stuck to one plot. Read more
Published 19 months ago by S. Dawson

5.0 out of 5 stars Curious, philosophical, wide reaching great book
The first chapter in this book is in the first person which gives context to the rest of the book. I always forget how rare, but enjoyable, it is to read first person until you... Read more
Published 21 months ago by Janie U

5.0 out of 5 stars Read it, pass it on to your sons and their sons
Not much more can be said about this book beyond what the previous reviewers have already said. Unlike a lot of highly recommended reading it is however a great and despite its... Read more
Published 21 months ago by W. Boyd

5.0 out of 5 stars So it Goes.
Kurt Vonnegut was a genius. If you were a publisher reading the synopsis (if he ever did such a thing! Read more
Published 22 months ago by Mike French

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