Slaughterhouse-Five
- Author: Kurt Vonnegut Jr.
- Page count: 231
- Started on: 2026/09/27
- Finished on: 2026/09/30
- Rating: 4 out of 5 stars
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I first heard of Slaughterhouse-Five back in my teens, when it was on the allowed-reading list for English classes in my Dutch high school. It took me four decades, but I finally got to it. 😅
Based on Vonnegut’s experience as a POW during the bombing of Dresden in WWII, it tells the story of Billy Pilgrim. The book tells of Billy’s war experience, but also of his experience with alien abduction and with time travel to different phases of his own life. Moving non-linearly through Billy’s life, the book mixes war memoir, science fiction, and dark comedy.
As explained in the introduction, Vonnegut struggled for a long time to write Slaughterhouse-Five. I found it an interesting read, and the absurd mixture of styles made it easier to deal with his lived experience and the absurdities of war.
