The Writers Crusade, Tom Roston
The Writers Crusade, Tom Roston
List: $16.95 | Sale: $11.87
Club: $8.47

The Writer's Crusade
Kurt Vonnegut and the Many Lives of Slaughterhouse-Five

Author: Tom Roston

Narrator: Jim Frangione

Unabridged: 6 hr 56 min

Format: Digital Audiobook Download

Published: 01/08/2022

Synopsis

The story of Kurt Vonnegut and Slaughterhouse-Five, an enduring masterpiece on trauma and memoryKurt Vonnegut was twenty years old when he enlisted in the United States Army. Less than two years later, he was captured by the Germans in the single deadliest US engagement of the war, the Battle of the Bulge. He was taken to a POW camp, then transferred to a work camp near Dresden, and held in a slaughterhouse called Schlachthof Fünf where he survived the horrific firebombing that killed thousands and destroyed the city.To the millions of fans of Vonnegut’s great novel Slaughterhouse-Five, these details are familiar. They’re told by the book’s author/narrator, and experienced by his enduring character Billy Pilgrim, a war veteran who “has come unstuck in time.” Writing during the tumultuous days of the Vietnam conflict, with the novel, Vonnegut had, after more than two decades of struggle, taken trauma and created a work of art, one that still resonates today.In The Writer’s Crusade, author Tom Roston examines the connection between Vonnegut’s life and Slaughterhouse-Five through his work, his personal history, and discarded drafts of the novel, as well as original interviews with the writer’s family, friends, scholars, psychologists, and other novelists including Karl Marlantes, Kevin Powers, and Tim O’Brien. The Writer’s Crusade is a literary and biographical journey that probes fundamental questions about trauma, creativity, and the power of storytelling.

About Tom Roston

Journalist Tom Roston worked at The Nation and Vanity Fair, and was a senior editor at Premiere for more than a decade. His work has appeared in the New York Times and many other publications. He is the author of two previous books, I Lost It at the Video Store: A Filmmaker’s Oral History of a Vanished Era and The Most Spectacular Restaurant in the World. He lives in Brooklyn.

About Jim Frangione

Jim Frangione is an actor and audiobook narrator who won AudioFile magazine’s 2011 Best Voice in Mystery and Suspense for his reading of Philip Carter’s The Altar of Bones and Spencer Quinn’s To Fetch a Thief. He has won numerous Earphones Awards and has been was a finalist for the prestigious Audie Award. His theater credits include the off-Broadway production of Scrambled Eggs and the New York premiere of David Mamet’s plays The Old Neighborhood, Romance, and Oleanna, in which he also performed with the national tour. His film and television appearances include Joy, Transamerica, Spartan, Heist, Brotherhood, The Unit, and Law & Order.

Reviews

Goodreads review by britt_brooke on November 16, 2021

A book about one of my favorite books, by one of my favorite authors? I had trepidation. But look at this cover and title! What’s inside is absolutely wonderful, babies. It’s about the man, father, writer, and soldier, as well as a thorough study of Slaughterhouse-Five. Writing about the trauma of w......more

Goodreads review by Janelle on August 01, 2021

This book is many things. A biography of Kurt Vonnegut and how he wrote Slaughterhouse-Five. The author also tries to decide whether Vonnegut was suffering from PTSD from his WWII experiences especially in Dresden and following from this whether Billy Pilgrim has PTSD also. So there’s also a history......more

Goodreads review by Michael on October 31, 2021

In 1967 Kurt Vonnegut gave us "Slaughterhouse-Five", the horrors of the World War II Dresden firebombing as witnessed by Billy Pilgrim. This masterpiece is a mix of autobiography, satire, and science fiction. It took Vonnegut over twenty years to figure exactly how to present this saga on paper. In h......more

Goodreads review by Jt on December 18, 2021

In my opinion, you don't have to be a Kurt Vonnegut fan, nor do you even have to have read Slaughterhouse-Five, to enjoy The Writer's Crusade by Tom Rosten. There is a whole lot more to this book than a dissection of Slaughterhouse-Five. First, this book serves as a simple biography for Kurt Vonnegut......more

Goodreads review by Nancy on September 02, 2021

I was too young when I first read Slaughterhouse-Five. I was a sophomore in college, in a 400 level Modern Lit class on Black Humor. I loved the books and continued to read all the authors we studied. But I was so young and inexperienced and sheltered, how could I have understood a book that war vet......more

Quotes

“Part biography, part literary interpretation, and part fan notes, The Writer’s Crusade is a spellbinding reexamination of both Slaughterhouse-Five and its author, Kurt Vonnegut. Although the emphasis of this marvelous book is on PTSD, Tom Roston never loses sight of the intuitive, imaginative genius of a boldly original prose stylist. Any Vonnegut enthusiast, and anyone interested in the sources of fine literature, will find pleasure in these pages.” Tim O’Brien, National Book Award–winning author

“[Roston’s] passion for Vonnegut’s writing is contagious. Vonnegut’s fans will find in this survey a fresh take on a classic.” Publishers Weekly

“New wars, and more recent fiction about them, may have overshadowed Slaughterhouse-Five, but Roston persuasively shows how the novel speaks both to Vonnegut’s moment and to our own.” Kirkus Reviews

“I absolutely loved The Writer’s Crusade. As soon as I finished it, I picked up Slaughterhouse-Five again. Tom Roston’s excellent book has given me the great gift of getting to read Vonnegut’s masterpiece as though it were my first time.” Kevin Powers, author of The Yellow Birds

“I read Slaughterhouse-Five when I had just returned from my war in Vietnam. I didn’t understand it until I read The Writer’s Crusade. Tom Roston’s insightful exploration of Vonnegut’s struggle to write the novel, and its significant place in our ongoing task of better understanding and treating the trauma of war should be read by all fans of Vonnegut, and all who suffer from trauma, no matter what the source.” Karl Marlantes, New York Times bestselling author

Add to Cart
Add to Wish List