Review: Slaugherhouse-Five

SLAUGHTERHOUSE-FIVE by Kurt Vonnegut, my copy published Dell Publishing in December 1991, copyright is 1965.

I had to look up information about the author, to see how close this book mimicked his life. This is a story about a man named Billy Pilgrim who can travel back and forth in time. His timeline sees Billy in WWII, on a planet captured by Tralfamadorians, where he is put in a zoo, his marriage and his life. But mostly he is traveling from his life in WWII. Whenever he is in a difficult situation he time travels. He finds himself eventually in Dresden where his life intersects with our Kurt Vonnegut, though we do not know this is the author, we can only suppose. But Mr. Vonnegut was stationed in Dresden and suffered all the horrors that were indicated in this book. Once again filling the adage that writers write what they know.

I found this book both funny and sad at the same time. The character of Billy Pilgrim and the problems he causes and the adventures he takes are hilarious. But the pain that people endured and the death that he faced was depressing. This is a book about jumping out of yourself to endure that pain and suffering. Good book, well written.

Review: The Traitor's Wife

THE TRAITOR'S WIFE by Allison Pataki in 2014 by First Howard Books. This is historical fiction about Benedict Arnold and his wife. There were some liberties taken in regards to the names of staff that worked for the Shippen's and the Arnold's. This book is about Clara the new ladies maid as much as it is about the the treasonous Arnold's. The book starts off with a prologue in which General Washington is sending his regards to the Arnold's about his delay in attending breakfast. Which starts Benedict on a scramble to exit the premises. Then we go back in time, not that far back, to May 1778 when Clara becomes apart of the Shippen household to become the Ladies Maid to both girls. She is warned by Mrs. Quigley the housekeeper that Miss Peggy has a temper and will try to keep Clara for herself. Clara is so enamored with her surroundings and the concept that she has a bed to herself instead of mat in front of a hearth that she maybe did not listen so well to the warning.

As forewarned Peggy takes Clara over and pretends that she is her friend, causing much commotion as the book ensues. Peggy is a loyalist and is flirting with John Andre' who she calls Johnny. He has an assistant who becomes enamored with Clara, so Peggy uses this to her advantage. But then the revolutionaries arrive in Philly and John runs with the British much to Peggy's dismay. But she is an opportunist at best, and even though she vows to hate Benedict Arnold for the things he has done since arriving to Philly, she flirts with him.

Now this book told me things that I did not know about Benedict Arnold, as we were only taught in school that he was a traitor. I did not know the battles he fought in, or the monies he put into the war effort. I did not know about his wife and her role in the treason. I either did not pay attention, or they just did not want to delve into the bits and pieces. In the back section of this book are questions for the author, I suggest you read this, because it seems she used many historical facts in this book. She tells you where she got her information and how she was drawn to write the story.

I really liked her writing style and the history aspect of this book. A great read.

September Books

I said I was going to read the following for September Don Quixote, The Traitor's Wife and finish Search For Lost Time which I was suppose to start in August. Ulysses took me longer than I thought it would so I have a change up for September. I did read The Traitor's Wife and will write a review next week, after my book club. I have started Search For Lost Time, but according to my phone I have 10000 pages to read, so that may take awhile. I am going to try to read it on a bigger screen and see if I can narrow it down to 5000 pages. This may be one that gets read over all the months. Instead of Don Quixote, I am reading  Slaughter House Five, which is of course a shorter book, therefore a faster read. I will probably review that the day after I review The Traitor's Wife.

Happy Fall- cuddle up and read a book.

Review: Ulysses

ULYSSES, by James Joyce, written in 1904, but not published in the United States until 1934, after having the ban lifted by Judge John M. Woosley. My copy was published by Modern Library in 1992.

This book is a day in Dublin, following the characters of Steven Dedalus, Mr. Leonard Bloom and a host of characters that intersect with these two characters. It is a book that is humorous, sacrilegious, racist, perverse and full of characters discussing in pubs, sex, pregnancy, religion, Hamlet and if the ghost is actually Shakespeare's grandfather, politics, death, and just thoughts about everything.

The writing can best be described as different, we go from conversational prose to poetry to song to written with newspaper headings describing what will come next to writing in play form, to the style of question asking who, what where and when and then back to narrative, we have run on sentences, connectedwords that make up the entirety of this book.

A friend of mine said if you don't have time to read it than just read the first and last paragraph in each section, my thought is but first you have to determine the sections. I would also be miss the tingting tingly feeling when you realize that if someone criticizes you for runonsentences, say a teacher, you can calmly point to James Joyce and ask them what they think about his work. Genius maybe, nerve racking definitely.

Not finished

I thought I would be finished by now with Ulysses, I downloaded it to my computer so I could take it on vacation, only to have problems with pulling it up. The internet at hotel was not great so I am sad to say this is a bad excuse, but an excuse none the less. I will say that this is a story about Dublin and it's inhabitants. A kind of day in the life of these inhabitants. It is a very long day. I am waiting for the day to end, as I am still a little more than 1/3 of the way through it. I do however, like the place I am at right now, we have the interaction of people seen through different eyes of the interacties (apparently interacties is not a word, but sorry, if Joyce can make up words, so can I.) I hope it continues in this vein, but as we have switched styles of writing several times, I think I will only have a short window of enjoyment.

Plan B finish this weekend, if I have to read all night. Book be done.