Lyn’s review of Slaughterhouse-Five > Likes and Comments

I agree wholeheartedly with your last statement, Lyn. I can't think of any other writer that can pull off such a difficult feat.

Thanks, Howard, he's a truly, uniquely great writer

very accurate

Thanks Pierre

Fun fact: it turns out that Dresden has restored its pre-WWII skyline, it its entirety. In fact, once they finally finished with that, they went ahead and rebuilt a few buildings that had been torn down before WWII even started. It's now a quite beautiful city again. Some of the old buildings have a mix of old (blackened) and new (relatively speaking shiny-white) stone, which serves as a subtle reminder. I hope to visit it again next year.

Wow, cool fact, thanks Rossdavidh

Do you have a favorite Vonnegut?

I'd say Galápagos or Breakfast of Champions but they're all good

God bless you Mr Rosewater

Yes! Thank you Ned, that is another excellent book, well overdue for a revsiit

I agree, Vonnegut was a great writer, but this isn't his best. Still I like it better each time I read it.

I am recalling that when I first read it, I had the impression that the central character really was becoming unstuck in time, but years later when I read it again I had the impression that he was merely hallucinating, perhaps while on his deathbed. Either way it was an intriguing read.

I took the hallucinating track also

I absolutely loved Slaughterhouse-Five! I've always intended to look into more of Vonnegut's work, alas life continues to get in the way. Hearing that his other works are even better certainly pushes his name towards the top of my TBR though. Thank you!

Thanks Bethany, Vonnegut is awesome

Awesome book. Awesome review!

Great review! My favorite by Vonnegut is GOD BLESS YOU, MR. ROSEWATER.

Thanks Chris

Thanks Carol. That's one of my favorites too

Sometimes when I re-read this one, Billy reminds me of the 1st version of literature's Forrest Gump! --Jen from Quebec :0)

Great observation Jen

If you think about the hallucinations I think he was living in the books by Killgore Trout after the plane crash. Billy mixed reality with fantasy he read in that Veteran's hospital

"Vonnegut can be funny and grim on the same page, same sentence even, and not lose relevance or sincerity.

Joseph Heller in Catch-22 pulled this off. But not his other books, which never worked for me.

I need to read that

Hi Lyn and all Vonnegut fans :) I am recommending Scepticism Inc form Bo Fowler, it is "Vonnegutian" in style but still very original and one of the funniest book I have ever read

Thanks Veronika

For me Heller and Catch-22 has a lot of similarity to Frank Herbert with Dune: a flash of brilliance that could never be recaptured by that author. There is one chapter in Catch-22 that is seared into me. It sets aside humor and is like a stream-of-conscious journey through the reality of war in Italy. Like when the TV show MASH, at it's best, turned serious at times. But better than that, because of the elegance of the written word over the poverty of images.

The film version was pretty good as well. The father(Henry Bumstead, famous[two Oscars!] Hollywood art director) of a good friend of mine(Anne Bumstead Jones) played Eliot Rosewater(no dialogue). He was Billy's roommate in the hospital.

I’ve been considering a reread of my Vonnegut collection. It would be my third. Alway a great experience.

Yes! Revisiting these are so much fun

Lyn wrote: “I'd say Galápagos or Breakfast of Champions but they're all good”

Yes! Breakfast will always be my favorite. It has stayed in my memory for decades. I haven't read Galápagos yet. I really need to correct that.

Galapagos is GREAT!

It was a fantastic book. But if Kurt's goal was to make me feel some sort of guilt about Allied actions or equate the destruction in some way to what Germant and Japan did, he failed. I came away as sure as ever of the justice of the Allied cause.