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Vonnegut always makes me laugh... in that "I may as well laugh so I don't cry" sort of way. So in that way, Slaughterhouse Five had me in stitches. Billy Pilgrim was obviously Vonnegut himself; "time-traveling" to avoid (or buy time to assimilate) the various atrocities he witnessed in WWII—both as a soldier and a prisoner of war. Poignant and darkly humorous, his telling of the firebombing of Dresden by the allies alone makes the story worthwhile to me. I know it wasn't in any of the history texts I was forced to read in the first 17 years of my life. I admit it, though: I love everything Vonnegut has ever written—even the stuff he didn't care for himself (I believe he gave himself a C- on Cat's Cradle)—and I'll miss him greatly. A true American literary icon.
NOTE: for those who just can't seem to relate to his disjointed, ofttimes vulgar style, I would suggest reading some of his various memoirs first. They help to put a lot of his fiction into perspective. Science Fiction fans (a label Vonnegut wan't nuts about his work being classified under, btw) would do best starting with a novel like The Sirens of Titan to warm up to his style.
Slaughterhouse Five is one of the handful of books that I'll re-read from time to time.
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