Slaughterhouse-Five

A masterpiece of American literature, Slaughterhouse-Five is among the greatest antiwar novels ever written. The novel, which is centered on the iconic World War II Dresden firebombing, is the product of Kurt Vonnegut's twenty-three-year battle to write a book about what he saw during his time as an American prisoner of war. In telling the life story of Billy Pilgrim, a barber's son who was abducted by aliens and later became an optometrist, the book blends elements of historical fiction, science fiction, autobiography, and satire. As a prisoner, Billy witnesses the devastation of Dresden, just as Vonnegut did. He goes through time travel, or is "unstuck in time," in contrast to Vonnegut.

Kurt Vonnegut became a cult icon in American literature with Slaughterhouse-Five, an immediate success that continued to grow in popularity despite being banned and subject to content and linguistic censorship by some libraries and schools. However, it was precisely those aspects of Vonnegut's writing—the political acerbic attitude, the inventiveness that defies genres, the open violence, and the transgressive wit—that have motivated countless readers to do more than simply adopt a new perspective on the world, but also muster the courage to speak out about it.

Vonnegut's portrait of political disillusionment, PTSD, and postwar worry is as pertinent, darkly hilarious, and deeply poignant as ever, fifty years after it was first published at the height of the Vietnam War. It remains an eternal lighthouse through the uncertainties of our own period.