Slaughterhouse 5 by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

Slaughterhouse 5 is generally considered Kurt Vonnegut's masterwork. In any event, it is certainly his best known work, capturing the imagination of an entire generation upon its publication in 1969, propelling Vonnegut from underground favorite into the top ranks of late 20th century literature.

Vonnegut himself considers Slaughterhouse 5 to have been a "work-in-progress" for the 24 years prior to its publication, as it is the "great anti-war novel" he was determined to write ever since his release from a German POW camp at the end of WWII, during which time he witnessed (and obviously survived) the allied fire-bombing of Dresden in 1945. The experiences of protagonist Billy Pilgrim as a POW fairly accurately portray Mr. Vonnegut's own.

One soon learns, however, that Billy's predicament includes, among other things, his being one half of an "exhibit" in a zoo on the planet Tralfamadore, the other half of this exhibit being an exotic dancer named Montana Wildhack, who had disappeared from Earth years before. Along the way we meet many memorable characters, all of whom loom large in the Vonnegut canon: Eliot Rosewater, Howard W. Campbell and the inimitable Kilgore Trout, "the world's greatest science fiction writer", believed by some to be Mr. Vonnegut's alter ego.

Each of these characters have their own Vonnegut novels to inhabit. We meet Eliot Rosewater in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Howard W. Campbell, who crosses Billy's path in Dresden, has his story told in Mother Night, a powerful tragedy told with great wit and sadness. As for Kilgore Trout, his main story is told in the raucous Breakfast Of Champions, although Mr. Trout pops up just about everywhere.

Taken as a set, these books can be seen as passing in and through each other to comprise an interlocking biography of the characters mentioned from the various perspectives presented by each individual story, with Slaughterhouse 5 smack in the center acting as a kind of traffic cop. Without reservation, we recommend Slaughterhouse 5 as your ticket into the compassionate and comprehensive world of Billy Pilgrim and other agents of the heart of Kurt Vonnegut.

Copyright 1996 - 2001 C. Dickens Fine, Rare and Collectible Books, Atlanta, Georgia