Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five is a prolific piece of interesting literature. Vonnegut channelled his war story into the protagonist, Billy Pilgrim. Pilgrim is a man who travels to different time periods throughout the book. He recollects multiple brief memories of the war in Dresden while also recalling the Tralfamadores, aliens that abuducted him for an extended period of their time, but a short period of earthling time.

This novel is different because there are no consistent characters. Throughout the story, Vonnegut jumps to different time periods in no specific order. Because of this, the reader can decipher characters and their behavior long enough to understand their importance in Billy Pilgrim’s life, but short enough to never be heard of again.

Vonnegut captured World War II’s essence and somehow ties in humor within the story. Slaughterhouse Five is a powerful book and is known to be Vonnegut’s most important work. Slaughterhouse Five bleeds humanity and imagination. Vonnegeut accompanies sorrow with humor making this novel manipulate your emotions and leaving you shed a tear for two reasons; laughter and sympathy.

This read is essential. It is a novel that I wish was being taught through our education system rather than some of the novels that I’ve forced myself to finish for the grade. This honestly is the ideal novel for the world. It is funny, spontaneous, sad, and requires a change of perspective. It is a simple read, no difficult diction, which will make this a fast read as well.  I give Slaughterhouse Five two thumbs up with a few gold stars, Vonnegut has become one of my favorite authors because of this anti-war anthem.