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Book Reviews

Book reviews are coming!

Are you interested in sharing your favorite book with everyone? If so, please submit a review to the library to be featured on the website. We will accept electronic and paper submissions. Paper submissions can be brought to the library, while electronic submissions can be emailed to the library director at:

Guidelines:

• Please keep your submissions to around 300 words
• Electronic submissions are preferred
• The library reserves the right to modify or deny publication of any submission

Sample Submission

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE [Find it in our catalog]
OR THE CHILDREN’S CRUSADE
By Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

Submission by James Hill

Slaughterhouse-five is generally regarded as the magnum opus of Kurt Vonnegut’s works.  Although it was originally published in 1969, the temporal elements of this book and the recent death of Vonnegut on April 11, 2007, incite a contemporary review.  Slaughterhouse-five is the story of Billy Pilgrim, who has come “unstuck in time”.  He has no control over his time-traveling and randomly visits the poignant moments in his life.  Pilgrim may be a fictitious character, but he is transparently molded after the author’s own experiences during the allied bombing of Dresden in World War II.  As Vonnegut explains, this book was difficult for him to write because he could only write it after realizing that the war (as with all wars) was fought by children.  The novel is apathetically anti-war, reflecting Vonnegut’s own decision to volunteer for service, despite having a prior history of pacifist publication, and the text remains relevant to current socio-political paradigms.  At times, Slaughterhouse-five propels itself forward with vague moral meanderings and is laden with terse philosophies about the meaning of free will, which readers may find maddening.  However, the writing style does genuinely parallel the internal chaos that a child sent to war feels through an examination of personal experiences, while trying to push these experiences away at the same time (by skipping back and forth in time).  It remains to be seen where Vonnegut will ultimately rest in the literary pantheon, as scholars often question his literary merit.  However, the author has previously graded his own work with an “A-plus” (in his book, Palm Sunday) and this reviewer concurs.

Copies of Slaughterhouse-five, as well as other fiction and non-fiction materials related to World War II and Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. are available through the Zumbrota Public Library.