Slaughterhouse-Five--Kurt Vonnegut

Of all of Vonnegut's novels I would have to guess that Slaughterhouse-Five is his most well-known and frequently-read. And with good reason, because it is a fantastic book and one of my all time favorites. Really cool high schools have it in their curriculum for required reading and really lame high schools have banned it. And so it goes...

I am not much of a literary critic, or a literary critic at all come to think of it, so a review of the book would be better read elsewhere. A plot summery, too. All of that stuff is over at wikipedia, but if you are interested enough to read about the plot you should just read the whole book. It is quick and super amazing. I think a lot of people go through a Vonnegut stage when they first discover his writing. I did, and read 6 or 7 of his books in a row because I loved his writing style. Prior to reading his books it was uncommon for me to laugh aloud (lol!) when reading a book. So below I have decided to rank my favorite Vonnegut books in the simple fashion of one being my favorite, and taking it from there:

1) Bluebeard (1987)--slightly lesser known, but so great. Among my top five favorite books ever. Stay tuned next week for brother Eric to recommend this one as well.
2) Slaughterhouse-Five (1969)--straight from the mouth of Cory Palmer, you should read this.
3) Cat's Cradle (1963)--first one I read. On the sci-fi side of things, but got me interested to read more.
4) Hocus Pocus (1990)
5) Deadeye Dick (1982)
6) Breakfast of Champions (1973)--this one came highly recommended from a bunch of people, so my hopes were high. Compared to his other works I wasn't that impressed. I think I should see the movie.

All of these books are worth reading, but Bluebeard and Slaughterhouse-Five are really must read books if you like funny and great things. Sidenote--I have never read it so I can't comment, but our first recommender TJ Huff had Welcome to the Monkeyhouse (short stories) on his list, so that is also probably worth a damn.

Special treat! In Vonnegut's own book Psalm Sunday (1981) the author ranks his works up to that point in time. I have put them in order from highest to lowest ranking. A recommends straight from the author:

Cat's Cradle--A plus
Slaughterhouse-Five--A plus
The Sirens of Titan--A
Mother Night--A
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater--A
Jailbird--A
Player Piano--B
Welcome to the Monkeyhouse--B minus
Breakfast of Champions--C
Psalm Sunday--C
Slapstick--D

And a quote (of apology) from within Slaughterhouse-Five to Vonnegut's publisher Sam Lawrence:

And I say to Sam now: 'Sam-here's the book.' It's so short and jumbled and jangled, Sam, because there is nothing intelligent to say about a massacre. Everybody is supposed to be dead, to never say anything or want anything ever again. Everything is supposed to be very quiet after a massacre, and it always is, except for the birds. And what do the birds say? All there is to say about a massacre, things like 'Poo-tee-weet?

Almost Famous (2000)--Cameron Crowe

This entry could be alternately titled "I Already Dropped the Ball" and it could be an apology to my many, many loyal readers. The intent of Friends Recommend is for daily updates and feedback on some of my friends' favorite things. And a little over one week into this and I've already missed an entry. I swear my reason is valid, and has something to do with me being in Michigan all weekend in sub-zero temperatures, but who wants to hear about that?

A little further into this entry we'll address the fantastic movie Almost Famous, but I can already see that I'm going to run out of days this week to cover all of the Cory picks that I stand behind whole-hearted. So I'm just going to give some backup and props to a few of these picks that I might not get to. Hopefully I'll get to cover some of them in the next few days, but if not these are a few of my all-time favorite things that made it to Cory's list and I feel everyone would/could enjoy. They are the Bartok String Quartets, Bjork's Vespertine (sorry, no love for you Medulla!), Slaughterhouse Five (Vonnegut's Bluebeard nudges this one out for me, but I still love this book), Amelie, Donny Darko, and the British Office (although I think I am won over as a Michael Scott fan). All of these things are worthy of your ears and eyes and if I don't give them adequate recognition this week, I hope to in the future.

When I look over these lists of my friends, I generally try to comment on the things that I have some knowledge of that might be slightly lesser known to this audience as a whole. For instance Cory's list initially had the Harry Potter books on it, which I know he loves. However I decided to remove them (with his approval!) because most people have already formed an opinion, and if they were going to read them they have probably already done so. I've already made the decision that I will probably never read these books, so a recommendation doesn't weigh too heavy with me. I also try to apply this point of view to the things from a list that I choose to comment on during the week. Today's commentary does not follow this point of view. I know most people have seen Almost Famous, and most people I know already love it. But when I was going through Cory's list I found a Youtube clip of the scene that ends this post and I couldn't resist getting it up here. It has contributed strongly to my strange and unhealthy love of this song.

If you have never seen Almost Famous, I am recommending that you go out and get a copy now or put it at the top of your Netflix cue. If you don't like it you can blame me, but if you don't like it we probably don't have all that much reason to be friends anyway. If you fall into this category and you rent it based soley on my recommendation and really dislike it, please comment and tell me why. I need to know.

The basic story line is of an aspiring teenage rock journalist, William Miller, and his pursuit of writing a cover story for Rolling Stone on the fictional band Stillwater. Philip Seymour Hoffman is his usual amazing self in the role of Lester Bangs, and Kate Hudson and Jason Lee are both standout in their roles of Penny Lane and Jeff Bebe. All-time favorite funnyman Mitch Hedberg also makes an appearance as the Eagles road manager. This is one of my favorite scenes from the film and if you tell me you weren't singing along by the end I would probably call you a liar. The scene is a testament to the powers of Elton John's Tiny Dancer.