About the Book:
Slaughterhouse-Five tells the story of Billy Pilgrim, a man who has come "unstuck in time." At any point in his life, he may find himself sud­denly at another point in his past or future. Billy's experiences as an American prisoner of war in Ger­many during World War II are told in more or less chronological order, but these events are continu­ally interrupted by Billy's travels to various other times in his life.

I really had a hard time w/ this one. I read it and am still not sure I really know what it is about...

I'll set up a bookray for this one.

I am offering this as an INTERNATIONAL bookray. Please be willing to ship internationally if necessary (cheapest rate is fine). I will do my best to meet everyone's shipping preferences.

Please read and pass it to the next person within a month.

Participants (Subject to change w/o notice):

1. kingfan30 - UK (EU) (Int'l)
2. Danielle23 - UK (Int'l)
3. Simson-Shilitoe - France (EU/Int'l)
4. chich - Spain (Int'l)
5. silvia-pco - Portugal (EU)
6. lamelemon - Romania (EU)

Off to the first person in the bookray. Happy Reading!

Book has arrived safe and sound, I just need to finish my current read then I will start this one, thanks for sharing x

28 Feb 11 - Well I've read it and like angela861 I'm not sure what its about, and I don't really know what else I can say about it.

On its way to Danielle23

Arrived safely this morning. Looking forward to reading it and seeing if I can make out the plot. Thanks angela xx

This was a very strange book and I was enjoying it until the time travel was introduced. It did feel like a hallucination of Billy, especially the abduction part, and I felt it brought nothing extra to the story I wanted to find out why Edgar Derby risked it all for a teapot.

Thanks for sharing this book Angela xx

Off to Simson-Shilitoe the next in line. I hope you enjoy it xx

The book arrived safe and sound in yesterday`s mail.

At the moment I am reading Roald Dahl`s "Danny the Champion of the World" a bookring started by GronnLivsstil and Bruce Chatwin`s "Traumpfade" a bookring in German language started by ApoloniaX. So I hope to start with this small book soon.

Thank you "angela861" for including me in this bookring.

And thank you "Danielle23" for posting and the beautiful picture-postcard with the violet and blue butterfly. One of the best postcards I have ever got.

Sorry for the delay. Over the last 5 weeks I had to spent a lot of time with gardening in the evenings. And beyond it at the weekends to get some more detailed informations and knowledges about designing and installing Photovoltaic Solar Electric Systems.


And after some rush hour with 6 other bookrings I am going to start with this book on Tuesday (26.04.2011).

Vonnegut's Novel Noir, which revolves around the devastating effects of the 1945 bombardment of Dresden, depicts the disturbed mental existence of Billy Pilgrim---a pathetic anti-hero with whom we soon sympathize. Readers are jerked through multiple time warps in each chapter of these 215 pages of stream-of-consciousness memories. To further compound literary comprehension portions of chapters one and ten are related by a first-person narrator whose goal is to comment on Billy's story. In short: his fluctuating inner life deposits him without warning into pieces of temporal amber, trapping him like a bug, where he is helpless to return to the present. The choice of the protagonist's name is indicative of his plight: BILLY implies not a fully grown man but an impotent youth; PILGRIM hints at his psychological journeys in search of sanity--or even his attempts to escape it.

Requiring some literary flexibility on the part of readers this story is engaging; we see Billy in a variety of ages and settings (not the least bit chronological). Flashbacks are not sufficient; the author includes flash forwards as well. No wonder poor Billy is often confused. We see him as a baby, a boy, a fiancé, then a rich optometrist, a devoted husband, and a wretched chaplain's assistant during WW2. The poor fellow permits himself to be acted upon, rather than commit himself to deliberate action, which results in needless suffering for him--not to mention the dismayed concern of his adult offspring. Meekly accepting of his fate and the prolonged unfairness of life, he calmly allows the world to consider him a crackpot by insisting that he was abducted by aliens and displayed in a an Earthling cage on a planet called Tralfamadore.

Besides spoofing the sci fi craze of the 1960's the author indulges in two private agendas: to educate the American public about the atrocity of Dresden and to titillate the masses with countless examples of lewd language and crass behavior. He assumes that intelligent Americans will revel in his indulgence of low morality and crudity--cleverly passed off as literature. We must wade through a morass of filth (of all kinds) in order to empathize with the trials of a naïve innocent like Billy, whose pilgrim journey of self-discovery and human acceptance may never be fully achieved. An interesting read for those who can separate the trash from the kernels of human truth.


Posting to "chich" in Spain as soon as I get an address.

I am going to post the book to Spain tomorrow in the afternoon after finishing work.

Happy journey to Spain and happy reading, chich.

Book received today, many thanks for passing it on Simson-Shilitoe! Also, a huge thank you for the lovely postcard & chocolate, they made my day:)

Thanks for hosting this ray angela861, I'll finish the book I'm reading at the moment and will get right on to this one:)

Like others have said before, getting through this book was a real struggle! What bothered me most was Vonnegut's writing style. It was just too chaotic and repetitive. I'm not sure I will keep on trying to read "1001" books, it seems that every single one I read is a real disappointment...

Thanks anyway for sharing angela861! :)

I already have silvia-pco's address and will be sending her the book tomorrow.

Sent to silvia-pco today, enjoy! :)

Here it is! Mount TBR is exactly on the small side, but I'll try to be quick :)

silvia-pco sent an update and is now reading the book. It should be travelling again soon! :-) Happy Reading!

First of all, I'm sorry it took me so long to pick up this book, I had a monstrous TBR pile. :)

I agree with what has been said, this is not an easy read. It was often a confusing book and the whole plot did feel like an hallucination of the main character... To me in fell short, I was hoping it could focus more on the Dresden subject, but it ended up being to much of a mess to give an actual insight on that matter. I haven't read any other books by Vonnegut, so I can't compare this to his other work, but this wasn't a great introduction to the author.

Despite that, thanks for sharing this. I will mail in along to lamelemon during this coming week.

The books on its way to lamelemon! I'm sorry it took me a little while longer to mail it out!

Enjoy!

Thanks silvia-pco for forwarding this book and angela861 for offering the bookray. The book arrived safely and was waiting for me since the 28th, but I only picked it up this morning as I was out of town for the holidays.

Happy belated New Year everyone, and great books to go along!

Really glad to have been a part of this bookray. Impressive, overwhelming at times but fairly easy to read overall, this left me with some strong imagery.

will travel next to pulcherrima

Finally found a new reader for this little one, now off to Denmark! Happy reading!

This book arrived during my Easter holiday, which is why I haven't journalled it before now.

I'm very grateful and look forward to reading it.

I want to read this book, but after having been on my shelf for almost a year I still haven't found the time. Tonight a friend of mine wanted to read it, so I gave it to him to bring home and read.