For banned book week, I’m doing five mini-reviews of my favorites off the ALA (American Library Association) list. I don’t really do reviews, so these will be short and simple. But there’s so many other places you can look if you want detail, by more experienced reviewers than me.
Recommendation 1:
Slaughterhouse-Five; Kurt Vonnegut
I can’t recommend anything by Vonnegut enough. The man is awesome. Weird, though. Very weird. His books are full of unbelievable absurdities, strange and helpless characters struggling against their fate, all woven together with dark humor. Slaughterhouse-Five is one of my favorites, and other Vonnegut fans seem to agree with me. This book has one of the oddest kinds of time-travel I’ve ever read, some peculiar aliens, and the struggle against despair that is war.
“And so it goes…” – Vonnegut
A wonderful summary of the experience of reading this book!
Thanks! Enjoy your Banned Book Week!
I love Vonnegut, too, and I also decided to re-read Slaughterhouse-Five this week. It’s amazing the level of controversy this book has sparked.
Most reasons I see for banning books seem to boil down to ‘no sense of humor.’ They take themselves–and the books–too seriously. Any people like that aren’t going to get Vonnegut at all.
Yes, I think there is an element of that. I also think it has to do with control and a fear of critical thinking.