SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE OR THE CHILDREN'S CRUSADE, A NOVEL BY KURT VONNEGUT (BOOK REVIEW AND RECOMMENDATION)
Today I shall review Slaughterhouse-five, a semi-autobiographic anti-war novel by Kurt Vonnegut . Published in 1969, the novel has met with largely positive reviews and is widely regarded as a classic (it even made the list of the best one hundred modern novels according to Time magazine). Slaughterhouse-five was nominated for Nebula and Hugo award in 1970, but lost to Ursula Le Guin The Left Hand of Darkness. The novel focuses on Billy Pilgrim, a young American soldier who fought in WW2 and survived the bombing of Dresden. The book follows the story of his life. The novel opens with the famous line: " All of this happened, more or less. " The writing style and the language used is simple ( and in accordance with Vonnegut signature style) but the narrative is not linear and post-modernist. In fact, the novel features many jumps through time. The novel even contains science fiction elements as its protagonist Billy believes he can travel through time and is in communi...