Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel Order Now

Have you ever gone to a movie and within a few minutes you just know it's not going to be "your type" of movie? That's how this book struck me--it's just not my type. From nearly page one, this book simply didn't grab me. In the least. Because it's a short book, though, I did finish it. I kept thinking it must have a great ending or some kind of great over-arching message due to its fame and esteem, but it didn't have either.

It's the only Vonnegut book I've read so I don't know if this is how his style always is, but I did not care for the scattered back-and-forth in time approach--it wasn't that it was hard to follow, because it really wasn't, but I didn't feel like it added anything to the book. Then again I thought the characters and events in the book were boring enough that if it hadn't had the time-jumping-around, maybe I would've not liked the book even more? I guess at least the time-jumping kept me on my toes.

Largely I thought that the book was unemotional. I didn't a lick about any character in the book. Billy was just a sad sap, but I never empathized with him--and I don't feel the author ever tried to get me to empathize with him. The other characters that came and went were pretty transitory and usually didn't stick around long enough to learn much about them. There are glimpses into Billy's wife and family, and some of his soldier-mates, but they are mostly just glimpses. I'm not even sure I know what BILLY'S character was really like--there just wasn't a ton of character development in my opinion. Also the book struck me as one attempt at dry humor after another, and maybe that's just not my style of humor? The "So it goes" and "Poo-too-tweet" repetition just annoyed me.

One unfair aspect to my reading of Slaughterhouse is it came directly after my first read of Catcher in the Rye. I could not put Catcher in the Rye down--I connected with Catcher in every way that I did not connect with Slaughterhouse. I thought Catcher was absolutely hilarious--I was literally laughing out loud on almost every page. I wasn't expecting Slaughterhouse to be as good as Catcher, but I didn't expect Slaughterhouse to be so uninteresting and random. I think Catcher was just more my style if you will. (They're very different books--I'm not directly comparing them, just directly comparing my interest in them.)

Because I'm clearly in the minority in not enjoying Slaughterhouse, I'll assume "it's me and not you (the book)". Nonetheless, I would never recommend this book to anyone--I would just tell them that most of the world seems to love it, but for me it wasn't the right fit.Get more detail about Slaughterhouse-Five: A Novel.