Synopses & Reviews
Kurt Vonnegut's absurdist classic
Slaughterhouse-Five introduces us to 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 Pilgrim simultaneously through all phases of his life, concentrating on his (and Vonnegut's) shattering experience as an American prisoner of war who witnesses the firebombing of Dresden.
Slaughterhouse-Five is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is also as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch-22, it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it unique poignancy -- and humor.
Review
"Highly imaginative, nearly psychedelic....It is very tough and very funny; it is sad and delightful; it is very Vonnegut; and it works." The New York Times
Review
"Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. has written one of the major novels of the year....Haunting....Irresistible reading....Poignant and hilarious, threaded with compassion and, behind everything, the cataract of a thundering moral statement." Boston Globe
Review
"Splendid art and simplicity....Nerve-racking control....A funny book at which you are not permitted to laugh, a sad book without tears, a tale told in a slaughterhouse." Life magazine
About the Author
Kurt Vonnegut was a master of contemporary American Literature. His black humor, satiric voice, and incomparable imagination first captured America's attention in
The Siren's of Titan in 1959 and established him as "a true artist" with
Cat's Cradle in 1963. He was, as Graham Greene has declared, "one of the best living American writers."
Ethan Hawke is best known for his starring roles in the motion pictures Dead Poets Society, Reality Bites, Gattaca, Before Sunrise, Hamlet and Training Day, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award. He is the cofounder and artistic director of the Malaparte Theater Company, based in New York, and the author of the novels The Hottest State and Ash Wednesday. He lives in New York with his wife and two children.