Scouring Books: Slaughterhouse-Five

Slaughterhouse-Five
by Kurt Vonnegut

Originally published in 1969, this may on the surface appear to compete with Catch-22 as a definitive novel of modern war, but I think I prefer to consider it as one of the more innovative science fiction tales of the last half century, from a writer who was able to do exactly what he wanted to, a truly rare accomplishment. The Hollywood version almost ruined my memories of it, though, from a University of Maine classroom, marking another rare accomplishment, in that the tired old adage that "the book was better" actually rings through with this one.

Bookshelf status: read.