Kurt Vonnegut (JR)
Published 1969
Ranked #18 on the 100 greatest novels of the 20th Century by the Modern Library
A wonderfully subtle and amusing short novel which allows the reader to draw their own conclusions of the terrors of war rather than over-exposing its repulsive sights and nature. With references to determinism and a Boethian outlook; Vonnegut not only advocates pacifism but comforts us on the acceptance of death. Perhaps Mr. Vonnegut's finest quality is that in Slaughterhouse Five he has written of one of the most morbid occasions that there has ever been within humanity, but presents it as something that we are able to laugh about without being disrespectful and it is through this that he comes across as a philosophical, likable, obviously brave, even-minded and extremely intelligent man.
4/5
"Humour is an almost physiological response to fear"
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| November 11 1922 - April 11 2007 |
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