Slaughterhouse-Five

by Kurt Vonnegut Jr.

“How nice—to feel nothing, and still get full credit for being alive.”

We had forgotten that wars were fought by babies. When I saw those freshly shaved faces, it was a shock. ‘My God, my God—’ I said to myself, ‘It’s the Children’s Crusade.’ ”

Their address was this: “Schlachthof-fünf.” Schlachthof meant slaughterhouse. Fünf was good old five.

There are almost no characters in this story, and almost no dramatic confrontations, because most of the people in it are so sick and so much the listless playthings of enormous forces.