Well, personally, I don't believe Slaughterhouse 5 to be one of the best Novels of all time, although it is a very good book.
Breakfast of Champions was a far better book, as were many of his other stories, it's just that slaughterhouse 5 will always be remembered as a harsh anti-war novel because it was based on Dresden.
I don't mean to belittle any of his books, I own all his work and think he is an astounding writer, but this does not stand out as something with which all his other works should be compared to.
Oh, for other book lovers on the topic, Yossarian lives ;)
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magiemay
20 years ago
This has no relation to anything except that the books mentioned are also WW 2 books. Slaughterhouse-five was good. Catch-22 was also enjoyable, if not a little over rated. Hands down the best World War 2 novel, and my pick for best novel ever is, Gravity's Rainbow by Thomas Pynchon. This however is completly irrelavant to the whole matter because it would be UTTERLY IMPOSSIBLE to ever conver GR to the screen. Just felt like stating this.
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gus81
20 years ago
Well, I've read hundreds of books (my aim is to read as many books as I can in my lifetime), and Slaughterhouse 5 is simply excellent. Vonnegut is an absolute literary genius who makes everything older than his work look quite dated. His books are incredibly lucid and free-flowing. He simply lets his imagination guide the plot, and it works wonderfully...Or at least this is how it seems to play out - plots like his really require alot of planning to seem 'unplanned.'
I loved the bit in Breakfast of Champions, where he attacks novelists for making up main characters who make the sub-characters expendable. Vonnegut states that this is how the governement treats people in general, so he goes out of his way to create some life even for the smallest characters in his book. This idea permeats Slaughterhouse 5 as well. His ideas are just fantastic, and his simple use of language brings the story to life perfectly. Note the part of Slaughterhouse 5 where the wife dies in the Cadillac which lost its mufflers.
Brilliant stuff.
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Cyberbob8385
19 years ago
One of the best novels of all time? I don't know. I've never read them all. And even of the ones I have read, I still don't know if I'd call it one of the best or not. But it certainly is a great novel and it certainly is better than most. And it certainly gets a five-star review from me.
~Cyberbob
On the other hand...
...You have different fingers.
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luke_bannon
19 years ago
I agree that it is a very good book, but I don't know if it would be one of the best of all time.
ThE MaStER wOuLd NoT ApPrOvE- Torgo
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jltimm24
19 years ago
id say its up there as one of the best american novels of all time
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