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Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five: Bookmarked
Slaughterhouse-Five is a seminal novel of contemporary literature, a rumination on war, space, time and the meaning of life and death. In Kurt Vonnegut’s existential classic, we meet Billy Pilgrim, a man who has become unmoored in time after being abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a non-linear universe where time has no meaning, we revisit key moments in Pilgrim’s life, in particular his harrowing experience as an American prisoner of war during the firebombing of Dresden in World War II.
In this first title in the Bookmarked series, author Curtis Smith examines the influence of Slaughterhouse-Five on his life, writing and relationship with his young son. Of the book, Smith writes, “The best books are invitations. They are time machines. They challenge us to think, to reconsider. Behold Vonnegut’s time machine, a narrative of a hundred different frames, a splintered perspective that lifts his whirligig contraption from the ground. He fuels his machine with man’s weightiest elements—time, war, death—and then mixes an infusion of lightness, the spark of wit and irony. His machine rattles, taking flight with a shambling grace.”
The Bookmarked series focuses on a famous work of literature that left a powerful impression on an author (hence the name, Bookmarked—a book that left its mark). Each book in the series is a no-holds barred personal narrative detailing how a particular novel influenced an author on their journey to becoming a writer, as well as the myriad directions in which that journey has taken them.
In this first title in the Bookmarked series, author Curtis Smith examines the influence of Slaughterhouse-Five on his life, writing and relationship with his young son. Of the book, Smith writes, “The best books are invitations. They are time machines. They challenge us to think, to reconsider. Behold Vonnegut’s time machine, a narrative of a hundred different frames, a splintered perspective that lifts his whirligig contraption from the ground. He fuels his machine with man’s weightiest elements—time, war, death—and then mixes an infusion of lightness, the spark of wit and irony. His machine rattles, taking flight with a shambling grace.”
The Bookmarked series focuses on a famous work of literature that left a powerful impression on an author (hence the name, Bookmarked—a book that left its mark). Each book in the series is a no-holds barred personal narrative detailing how a particular novel influenced an author on their journey to becoming a writer, as well as the myriad directions in which that journey has taken them.
184 pages, Paperback
First published February 22, 2016
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
September 27, 2017
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February 21, 2016I'm super biased, cause I've got an upcoming book in this series, but... man, I love this series. I haven't read Vonnegut in 20+ years, and this was a great take on the author, the book, war, nostalgia, growing old, trying to be good...
April 20, 2018
I was VERY impressed by this fluid, thoughtful, extended essay on Slaughterhouse-Five. Smith is a very sensitive reader of the novel, first of all, and of Vonnegut, and of his responses. He moves nicely back and forth between the text and the world, with touches of his interior and personal world that gives the work a full, felt immediacy. As a professor who teaches Slaughterhouse-Five to Japanese students almost every year, I can agree with Smith on the moving power of the novel, not just for me, but for the students, and, I would argue, any reasonably patient person with a sense of life's ironies, good and bad. Smith's writing captures the jumbled, jangled nature of the story, and yet he manages to give a positive, coherent, and deeply heartfelt response to Vonnegut's work. This is a companion volume that can stand alone. An essay that is deeply influenced by Vonnegut, but sounds like his own voice. Like the novel, it's moving, painful, funny, and deep.
April 28, 2017
I love this book. Curtis Smith is a beautiful writer. When I read Vonnegut in Tenth grade, I went on that summer to read more of his work. Now in Smith's book, I revisited so much of what it meant -- what it means -- to read Vonnegut.
But there is more: This is very much Curtis Smith's own book.
Smith's reflections lend depth to a book full of insight and compassion. He includes reflections on his son and what it means to be a father, and he adds many sections of military history. This is in addition to the dialogue with Vonnegut and with Slaughterhouse-Five. Smith follows the vignette pattern of Vonnegut, and Smith's book builds seamlessly to a complete work.
I'm so excited to find Curtis Smith's writing. I really look forward to exploring his other work.
But there is more: This is very much Curtis Smith's own book.
Smith's reflections lend depth to a book full of insight and compassion. He includes reflections on his son and what it means to be a father, and he adds many sections of military history. This is in addition to the dialogue with Vonnegut and with Slaughterhouse-Five. Smith follows the vignette pattern of Vonnegut, and Smith's book builds seamlessly to a complete work.
I'm so excited to find Curtis Smith's writing. I really look forward to exploring his other work.
October 8, 2020
Kurt Vonnegut's Slaughterhouse-Five: Bookmarked by Curtis Smith is part of IG Publishing's series of Bookmarked books. Authors are invited to share their story of the book that influenced them the most. I have never met Curtis Smith, but it would almost seem that I knew him for a long time. We have quite a bit in common. We are both from northern cities, fathers, spent money on books as kids, fascinated by shortwave radio, enjoy history especially WWI, and are almost the same age. The writing seems very familiar and almost as though we walked the same path. Smith went to college after high school and became a teacher. I went to the Marines after high school. There is the split. Smith wonders what the military and the possibility of dead bodies would have been an experience he could have endured. I wonder if a classroom of middle school children is something I could have survived.
I first encountered Smith's work in Best Small Fictions 2016. His contribution was called "Illusions." After posting my review he asked me if I wanted to read his latest book on the book that inspired him the most -- Slaughterhouse Five. I said, “yes” thinking it had to be pretty dark -- the firebombing of a city and, from what I recalled, a mentally broken soldier. I read Slaughterhouse Five back in the early 1980s and that is what I remembered of it. I re-read it again before starting on Curtis’ book not trusting my memory and came away with a better understanding. Perhaps I was a bit like the Marine major Billy Pilgrim meets at the Lion’s Club in those days.
Smith starts but telling the reader about the book. It is the 29th most banned book in the United States. In fact, a North Dakota school burned all their copies in the firestorm of the school’s furnace. It has been called anti-Christian and obscene without seeing that the true obscenity lies in the destruction of a beautiful city and the amount of human bone meal the new city is built over. “So it goes” punctuates the violence and acts to numb the reader and allow him or her to simply accept violence and mass murder as something that naturally happens. There is so much horror in the book, but it is broken up with a dark humor. Billy Pilgrim is a walking cartoon for most of his military service and time as a prisoner of war -- covered with a too small, fur collared jacket and silver boots.
Paul Lazzaro is the evil man in the story. He promises to kill Billy to avenge the death of Roland Weary who blames Billy for his gangrene and pending death. Lazzaro is by no means a nice guy but he kills Billy with a laser rifle. The whole mockery of death. Slaughterhouse Five was written in 1969. At the time, a laser was seen as a weapon that could split an atom at 20 at light years. Billy’s killer uses precision to accomplish his goal. The bombing of Dresden was the indiscriminate killing thousands. One was evil and the other is accepted.
“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”
Josef Stalin, attributed.
So it goes.
Smith writes in a Tralfamadorian style seemingly jumping randomly from one point to another. It works extremely well and earthlings are clued in on the changes by inserted factoids about exemplary humans like Blokhin, the sporting contest of Mukai and Noda in China, and the origin of the word genocide. Smith also includes his stories of growing up, raising a son, and dealing with common core education.
Smith discusses PTSD and talks of a famous picture of a WWI soldier suffering from shell shock. The black and white adding additional emotion to a haunting picture. I am reminded of Septimus Warren Smith from Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Woolf also entered my mind when Smith was discussing walking along the beach with his wife and son watching the waves. He also reminds the reader of modern literature in the world today. Conservative, Christian leaders in government service preaching the genius of Ayn Rand while missing the point that she was anti-service, an atheist, and a critic of Ronald Reagan.
The biographical information and the discussion of Slaughterhouse Five tie in superbly. It was like sitting down with an old friend and talking about the past and about that book we read long ago. Far from the dark and depressing story, I was expecting, Smith’s writing on his life and Vonnegut is leveled with good and bad. His historical references in the book prevent it from being a “feel good” book and levels the tone. But all the same, it is a book that embraces the reader into a comfortable learning discussion. Like Slaughterhouse Five’s mixture of humor and horror, Smith finds his mix of book and biography. An outstanding take on life, the world, and the book.
Smith, like Vonnegut, ends his book with a bird’s call of “Poo-tee-weet?” Why does a bird tweet interrogatively? That puzzled me. What could a bird possibly ask? Then I remembered this from Auguries of Innocence and M Train by Patti Smith:
They know, I thought, like the birds of Iraq before shock and awe on the first day of spring. It was said that the sparrows and songbirds stopped singing, their silence heralding the dropping of bombs.
Perhaps the birds are asking is it over, or more likely “are they over?”
I first encountered Smith's work in Best Small Fictions 2016. His contribution was called "Illusions." After posting my review he asked me if I wanted to read his latest book on the book that inspired him the most -- Slaughterhouse Five. I said, “yes” thinking it had to be pretty dark -- the firebombing of a city and, from what I recalled, a mentally broken soldier. I read Slaughterhouse Five back in the early 1980s and that is what I remembered of it. I re-read it again before starting on Curtis’ book not trusting my memory and came away with a better understanding. Perhaps I was a bit like the Marine major Billy Pilgrim meets at the Lion’s Club in those days.
Smith starts but telling the reader about the book. It is the 29th most banned book in the United States. In fact, a North Dakota school burned all their copies in the firestorm of the school’s furnace. It has been called anti-Christian and obscene without seeing that the true obscenity lies in the destruction of a beautiful city and the amount of human bone meal the new city is built over. “So it goes” punctuates the violence and acts to numb the reader and allow him or her to simply accept violence and mass murder as something that naturally happens. There is so much horror in the book, but it is broken up with a dark humor. Billy Pilgrim is a walking cartoon for most of his military service and time as a prisoner of war -- covered with a too small, fur collared jacket and silver boots.
Paul Lazzaro is the evil man in the story. He promises to kill Billy to avenge the death of Roland Weary who blames Billy for his gangrene and pending death. Lazzaro is by no means a nice guy but he kills Billy with a laser rifle. The whole mockery of death. Slaughterhouse Five was written in 1969. At the time, a laser was seen as a weapon that could split an atom at 20 at light years. Billy’s killer uses precision to accomplish his goal. The bombing of Dresden was the indiscriminate killing thousands. One was evil and the other is accepted.
“A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic.”
Josef Stalin, attributed.
So it goes.
Smith writes in a Tralfamadorian style seemingly jumping randomly from one point to another. It works extremely well and earthlings are clued in on the changes by inserted factoids about exemplary humans like Blokhin, the sporting contest of Mukai and Noda in China, and the origin of the word genocide. Smith also includes his stories of growing up, raising a son, and dealing with common core education.
Smith discusses PTSD and talks of a famous picture of a WWI soldier suffering from shell shock. The black and white adding additional emotion to a haunting picture. I am reminded of Septimus Warren Smith from Virginia Woolf’s Mrs. Dalloway. Woolf also entered my mind when Smith was discussing walking along the beach with his wife and son watching the waves. He also reminds the reader of modern literature in the world today. Conservative, Christian leaders in government service preaching the genius of Ayn Rand while missing the point that she was anti-service, an atheist, and a critic of Ronald Reagan.
The biographical information and the discussion of Slaughterhouse Five tie in superbly. It was like sitting down with an old friend and talking about the past and about that book we read long ago. Far from the dark and depressing story, I was expecting, Smith’s writing on his life and Vonnegut is leveled with good and bad. His historical references in the book prevent it from being a “feel good” book and levels the tone. But all the same, it is a book that embraces the reader into a comfortable learning discussion. Like Slaughterhouse Five’s mixture of humor and horror, Smith finds his mix of book and biography. An outstanding take on life, the world, and the book.
Smith, like Vonnegut, ends his book with a bird’s call of “Poo-tee-weet?” Why does a bird tweet interrogatively? That puzzled me. What could a bird possibly ask? Then I remembered this from Auguries of Innocence and M Train by Patti Smith:
They know, I thought, like the birds of Iraq before shock and awe on the first day of spring. It was said that the sparrows and songbirds stopped singing, their silence heralding the dropping of bombs.
Perhaps the birds are asking is it over, or more likely “are they over?”
February 25, 2026
In Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five: Bookmarked, Curtis Smith offers a deeply reflective meditation on the transformative power of literature, centering his exploration on Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut. Rather than presenting a conventional critical analysis, Smith crafts a personal narrative that reveals how one novel can profoundly shape a writer’s creative identity and worldview.
Vonnegut’s nonlinear masterpiece with its time slipping protagonist Billy Pilgrim and its haunting portrayal of the Dresden firebombing serves as both subject and catalyst. Smith examines the novel’s structural daring, existential humor, and moral gravity, showing how its fragmented perspective influenced his own approach to storytelling. The elasticity of time in Vonnegut’s work becomes a metaphor for the way great books move through our lives, resurfacing at different stages with renewed meaning.
What elevates this volume is its emotional candor. Smith intertwines literary admiration with reflections on fatherhood, considering how stories are shared across generations. In doing so, he transforms literary appreciation into something intimate and lived a dialogue not only between reader and text, but between parent and child.
As the inaugural installment in the Bookmarked series, the book successfully fulfills its premise: that certain works leave indelible marks on those who encounter them. Smith’s prose is thoughtful, accessible, and infused with genuine reverence for Vonnegut’s enduring influence.
Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five: Bookmarked stands as a testament to how literature shapes not just our writing, but our relationships, memory, and sense of time itself.
September Withers
Vonnegut’s nonlinear masterpiece with its time slipping protagonist Billy Pilgrim and its haunting portrayal of the Dresden firebombing serves as both subject and catalyst. Smith examines the novel’s structural daring, existential humor, and moral gravity, showing how its fragmented perspective influenced his own approach to storytelling. The elasticity of time in Vonnegut’s work becomes a metaphor for the way great books move through our lives, resurfacing at different stages with renewed meaning.
What elevates this volume is its emotional candor. Smith intertwines literary admiration with reflections on fatherhood, considering how stories are shared across generations. In doing so, he transforms literary appreciation into something intimate and lived a dialogue not only between reader and text, but between parent and child.
As the inaugural installment in the Bookmarked series, the book successfully fulfills its premise: that certain works leave indelible marks on those who encounter them. Smith’s prose is thoughtful, accessible, and infused with genuine reverence for Vonnegut’s enduring influence.
Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse-Five: Bookmarked stands as a testament to how literature shapes not just our writing, but our relationships, memory, and sense of time itself.
September Withers
September 1, 2022
I was sure I was gonna be blown away by this book, but I must say that after (let's call it) Chapter 1, which got my hopes high, it got a tiny bit disappointing. My expectations might have been too great. But most of all, I think my English is not good enough to fully understand it. Because of that I plan to (re)read it in Croatian.
September 20, 2019
Loved it, very exciting and very engaging for someone who has grown up reading fantasy.
Also easy to understand without the complicated language many writers are under the impression that they have to use in order to be a good writer.
Also easy to understand without the complicated language many writers are under the impression that they have to use in order to be a good writer.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews