num_pages: 205
description: This 25th anniversary edition of Slaughterhouse-Five introduces Billy Pilgrim, a man who becomes unstuck in time after he is abducted by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore. In a plot-scrambling display of virtuosity, we follow him simultaneously thru all his life's phases, concentrating on his (&amp; Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an prisoner of war who witnesses the Dresden firebombing. Don't let ease of reading fool you--Vonnegut's isn't a conventional or simple novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, &amp; almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, &amp; so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters..." Slaughterhouse-Five, named from the building where the POWs were held, isn't only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it's as important as any written since '45. Like Catch-22, it fashions the author's WWII experiences into an eloquent plea against butchery in authority's service. It boasts the same imaginative humanity &amp; gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in his other works, but the book's basis in fact gives it a uniquely poignant humor.
language: English
title: Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade
titlecomplete: Slaughterhouse-Five, or The Children's Crusade
characters: Kilgore Trout, Paul Lazzaro, Eliot Rosewater, Barbara Pilgrim, Montana Wildhack, Roland Weary, Bertam Copeland Rumfoord, Billy Pilgrim, Valencia Merble, Robert Pilgrim, Edgar Derby, Howard W. Campbell Jr.
genres: Fiction, Classics, Science Fiction, Time Travel, War, American, Historical Fiction, Literature, Fantasy, Novels
ratings_count: 1330745
places: Ilium, Germany, The United States of America, Tralfamadore, Dresden
awards: awardedAt: 28800000
name: Hugo Award
category: Best SF Novel, awardedAt: -31507200000
name: Nebula Award
category: Best Novel, awardedAt: 28800000
name: National Book Award Finalist
category: Fiction, awardedAt: 28800000
name: Chicago Publishers' Award
publisher: Modern Library