Kurt Vonnegut drew Slaughterhouse-Five from his own experience as a prisoner of war in Dresden, where he survived the Allied firebombing of the city in 1945. The novel follows Billy Pilgrim, an American soldier who has come “unstuck in time” and drifts between the war, his ordinary postwar life as an optometrist, and a zoo on the distant planet Tralfamadore, where aliens keep him on display.

It sounds like a strange mix, and it is. But Vonnegut ties it together with a plain, wry voice and a refrain that has become famous: “So it goes.” The result is an anti-war novel that is darkly funny, tender, and impossible to forget.

James Franco narrates, and it is a good fit. He has fun with the book’s offbeat characters without turning them into cartoons, and he never lets the humor drown out the sadness underneath.

A rare book that is funny and poignant at the same time.

At just over five hours, it is easy to finish in a few sittings, and the time-jumping structure works well by ear. If you have only read it at school, it is worth another visit.