Book review: 'Slaughterhouse five' by Kurt Vonnegut (1969), 22 nov 2025
This needs a re-read, to me the book almost feels like an intro to itself. I loved it but only after I was halfway. I struggled to follow it up until the point where Vonnegut revealed himself to be a fellow-prisoner, in the same train as Billy. I didn't realize it was partially autobiographic. Then I read the prologue again and that actually really elevated the story for me. I also think that to me in 2025, it reads completely different than it probably did when it was first published in 1969, so I'm trying my best to process it from that perspective, but I think that's almost impossible for us in 2025. I've never experienced war, there wasn't any fear for war when I was growing up, and even now when there is a war a couple of countries over it feels like an abstract concept to me still. So I'm not sure if I'm the right audience for the book, but maybe I am. It's an anti-war book in that it strips war completely of its supposed glory and there are only losers, and the story and the way it's written really confronts you with the absurdity and mostly the futility of it all. Like, it doesn't even cirectly criticize anything or anyone because it doesn't need to, it just gives you what happens point blank which is enough, I thought that was really powerful.
(continue reading)
