How long is slaughterhouse five

Billy and edgar derby are sent on to dresden, germany, to live in an abandoned slaughterhouse. Reading length provides a calculation for the word count of this book, find out. Slaughterhousefive is the sixtyseventh entry to the american library associations list of the most frequently challenged books of 19901999 and number fortysix on the alas most frequently challenged books of 20002009. The absurdist, nonlinear work blends science fiction with historical events, notably the dresden firebombing of world war ii. I read slaughterhouse five in a single sitting, unable to put it down, even when my dinner was burning in the oven. He has always been alive and he will always be dead. September 2009 bbc radio 4 broadcast a feature length radio drama based on the book which was dramatised by dave sheasby and which starredread by my favour. Billy pilgrim is born in 1922 and grows up in ilium, new york. It spent sixteen weeks on the new york times best seller list and went through five printings by july. The creator explains that the whole of life itself has been a long. A novel modern library 100 best novels has 288 pages. After the war ends, billy is sent home to upstate new york, where he finishes his optometry degree. Published on march 31, 1969, slaughterhousefive became an instant and surprise hit.

An unpopular and complacent weakling even before the war he prefers sinking to swimming, he becomes a joke as a soldier. Read a plot overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter summary and analysis. Chapter 1 is all about how long it took vonnegut to write the. What kurt vonneguts slaughterhousefive tells us now the. The novel is structured in small sections, each several paragraphs long, that describe various moments of his life. Read a plot overview of the entire book or a chapter by chapter. A dutydance with death, antiwar novel by kurt vonnegut, published in 1969. See a complete list of the characters in slaughterhousefive and indepth analyses of billy pilgrim and roland weary.

Learn more about slaughterhousefive, including its. Slaughterhousefive is a work of literary fiction that combines historical, sociological, psychological, sciencefiction, and biographical elements. Slaughterhousefive is a novel by kurt vonnegut that was first published in 1969. He trains as a chaplains assistant, a duty that earns him disgust from his peers. With scant preparation for armed conflict, no weapons, and even an improper uniform. Slaughterhousefive blurs time and increases the power of reality. Billy and derby both survive the dresden firestorm, but derby is later executed for stealing a teapot from the ruins. I have only read 2 books of vonnegut so far, but it seems his characters are. A funnylooking, weak youth, he does reasonably well in high school. Soon, billy is hospitalized with symptoms similar to posttraumatic stress disorder and placed under psychiatric care.

Does kurt vonnegut expect us to believe his crazy story. Its a long, long time since ive encountered a book which is so full of individualism, so full of soul, so full of laughter and so full of tragedy and pathos and yet so readable. Unlike novels based on traditional forms, vonneguts novel does not fit a model that stresses plot, character conflict, and climax. Slaughterhousefive treats one of the most horrific massacres in european. Slaughterhousefive quiz that tests what you know about important details and events in the book. This novel may be funny, but its still deadly serious. Why slaughterhousefive resonates 50 years later the atlantic. Billy pilgrim is the unlikeliest of antiwar heroes. Slaughterhousefive, antiwar novel by kurt vonnegut, published in 1969.