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A review by mandalor3960
Slaughterhouse-Five by Kurt Vonnegut
2.0
I do not know how to asses how I feel about what I have read. This feeling of emptiness, without liking or disliking for the book, reminds me of when I had finished reading "Watchmen". I enjoyed the deterministic philosophy of the book, and wanted the aliens to go more in-depth on the subject, and now I am attracted towards reading more books by Vonnegut to fully understand his philosophy. Saying that has now allowed me to understand my position on this novel: it feels unfinished. I think I was waiting for some punchline, further diffusion on the metaphysical aspects of the universe, but Pilgrim's death was detailed two-thirds into the book, and the ending with Dresden's bombing was befitting.
I am impressed with the novel's style and characters but for the previously stated reason of emptiness, I will leave the book at a two star rating. Perhaps in a few days I will come to a different conclusion. For now I remain in a mist.
My notes are sparse. I forgot to write notes all together after the third chapter because of nonlinear plot that became more pronounced as the novel progressed.
Notes
Chapter One: In unsure about this book. The jumping narrative style and short sentences remind me of "On the Road", but at least it reads easier and is more coherent. The talk of death is nice but if this book leads into pacifism, which is what the Wikipedia article hinted at, I'm going to be disappointed.
Chapter Two: Surprisingly I've lost interest now that the novel is on Baby Pilgrim.
I am a bit into the third chapter and the short narrative style is intoxicating; this matter-of-fact style of writing death. Also the time jumps, reminding me of Dr. Manhattan's in "Watchmen", makes humans seem infantile and pointless, which I dislike.
September 17, 2019
Update
I did not mention before that I enjoyed also reading the first chapter of "Slaughterhouse-Five", which is the chapter that dealt with the unnamed narrator. That section earned a three star rating. Sadly, this is not enough, with the alien philosophical sections included, to increase the rating of the book above a two star-rating.
November 12, 2019
Update
I have thought of lowering the book's rating to one star because of it's pointlessness, but I am reminded of the sections on the alien philosophy, cited in the original review, that had me wanting to read more works by Vonnegut. That enthusiasm has considerably diminished to now, where I feel that the book by itself is a one star-rated book. I will leave it at two stars because my initial feelings and prolonged feelings for the book were of a two star-rating.
December 31, 2019
Update
I have changed the color of the rating from yellow to green. I am not sure when I had chosen yellow as the color.
February 2, 2020
Update
Answering the previous update's question, I believe I had colored the rating yellow because I had originally felt emptiness after reading this book and I was not sure where that belonged on the rating scale. Emptiness was then viewed as a technicality.
I am impressed with the novel's style and characters but for the previously stated reason of emptiness, I will leave the book at a two star rating. Perhaps in a few days I will come to a different conclusion. For now I remain in a mist.
My notes are sparse. I forgot to write notes all together after the third chapter because of nonlinear plot that became more pronounced as the novel progressed.
Notes
Chapter One: In unsure about this book. The jumping narrative style and short sentences remind me of "On the Road", but at least it reads easier and is more coherent. The talk of death is nice but if this book leads into pacifism, which is what the Wikipedia article hinted at, I'm going to be disappointed.
Chapter Two: Surprisingly I've lost interest now that the novel is on Baby Pilgrim.
I am a bit into the third chapter and the short narrative style is intoxicating; this matter-of-fact style of writing death. Also the time jumps, reminding me of Dr. Manhattan's in "Watchmen", makes humans seem infantile and pointless, which I dislike.
September 17, 2019
Update
I did not mention before that I enjoyed also reading the first chapter of "Slaughterhouse-Five", which is the chapter that dealt with the unnamed narrator. That section earned a three star rating. Sadly, this is not enough, with the alien philosophical sections included, to increase the rating of the book above a two star-rating.
November 12, 2019
Update
I have thought of lowering the book's rating to one star because of it's pointlessness, but I am reminded of the sections on the alien philosophy, cited in the original review, that had me wanting to read more works by Vonnegut. That enthusiasm has considerably diminished to now, where I feel that the book by itself is a one star-rated book. I will leave it at two stars because my initial feelings and prolonged feelings for the book were of a two star-rating.
December 31, 2019
Update
I have changed the color of the rating from yellow to green. I am not sure when I had chosen yellow as the color.
February 2, 2020
Update
Answering the previous update's question, I believe I had colored the rating yellow because I had originally felt emptiness after reading this book and I was not sure where that belonged on the rating scale. Emptiness was then viewed as a technicality.