Slaughterhouse-Five
Kurt Vonnegut
34 people recommended it in 23 threads, 2007–2026.
What people on Hacker News said
Semi autobiographical account of the bombing of Dresden in WW2. Really funny and clever ideas. Very good.
I love repetition, and Vonnegut uses to great effect. I read most of it in an evening.
Vonnegut impacted me to be a bit more fatalistic (“among the things he could not change were the past, present, and future”) and nihilistic in a positive way.
Coming of age is a perfect time to learn that the fact that life is absurd doesn't mean you can't or shouldn't laugh, just the opposite.
The horrors of war leaked into your brain through a sci-fi novel.
With every Vonnegut novel I re-read, I discover something new, more insightful, more brilliant and more compelling than I was able to grasp the last time I read it.
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