Slaughterhouse is a satire on the destruction of artistic life—in this case music—in contemporary civilization. Musicians are enjoined, virtually compelled, to abandon their art for butchery! A violinist who cannot bring himself to do so commits suicide. (There is something of Ionesco's Rhinoceros in the notion.) (p. 93)

Harold Clurman, in The Nation (copyright 1975 The Nation Associates), August 2, 1975.