Slaughter House Five

For my individual "wild card" book I read Slaughter House Five by Kurt Vonnegut, published by Dial Press. Kurt Vonnegut was considered on of the great american writers of his time. His first book he published was The Sirens of Titan in 1959. Mr. Vonnegut was know in his writing for his black humor and sarcastic wit in his writing. Mr. Vonnegut Died in 2007.  Slaughter House Five was set towards the end of World War II where we Fallow the Main character named Billy Pilgram. Billy is a tall lanky kid from Ilium, New York.  Billy is enlisted in the U.S. Army as a chaplains assistant, and oblivious to his surroundings. Billy winds up being separated form his chaplain and falls in with a batch if irregulars that were separated from their own units during the battle of the Bulge in the forests of Arden.

As Mr.Vonnegut tells the story we discover that Billy Pilgram is a time and space traveler.  With the blink of an eye billy travels from the forest of Arden of WWII to the world of Tralfamadoria, where Billy was abducted by Tralfamadorians. Billy goes in and out of time travel as well.
 I happen to think that the story is an anti war book. The time travel that the main character goes through reminds me of someone with back then was called combat fatigue or what we now know as PTSD. the flash backs that the main character goes through are classic signs of PTSD. I highly recommend this book and will probably read more books by Kurt Vonnegut.

Dick's lake

Paths protruding past pines.
Wind burnt, worn, wise with no concept of time.
For I marvel at these majestic mountains,
sitting soundly on stones of shale,
soul seemingly satisfied.

Tempting trail triggers titillation to go.
Pushing past the pass.
Down down down to Dick's lake we go.
finally finished and famished for the day.

Memorable meal made of Miso under
fire's flickering flame.
Tuckered out time to turn in!