Slaughterhouse Five read by Ethan Hawke

Don't let the ease of reading fool you--Vonnegut's isn't a conventional, or simple, novel. He writes, "There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick, and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces. One of the main effects of war, after all, is that people are discouraged from being characters..." Slaughterhouse-Five (taken from the name of the building where the POWs were held) is not only Vonnegut's most powerful book, it is as important as any written since 1945. Like Catch 22 , it fashions the author's experiences in the Second World War into an eloquent and deeply funny plea against butchery in the service of authority. Slaughterhouse-Five boasts the same imagination, humanity, and gleeful appreciation of the absurd found in Vonnegut's other works, but the book's basis in rock-hard, tragic fact gives it a unique poignancy--and humor.

“Poignant and hilarious, threaded with compassion and, behind everything, the cataract of a thundering moral statement.”—Boston Globe

Very tough and very funny . . . sad and delightful . . . very Vonnegut.”—New York Times

“Splendid art . . . a funny book at which you are not permitted to laugh, a sad book without tears.”—Life