Mother Night

This was my first Vonnegut novel and I really enjoyed it. I think it's a great first novel to explore the intricacies of Vonnegut's style and in my opinion, after reading others, one of his better more engaging works.

Vintage, perfect Vonnegut. Black Humor at it's best - funny, biting, about someting. Anyone with a brain and a sense of humor will love this. Also get Sirens of Titan & God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.

I absolutely love Kurt Vonnegut, and this one is my favorite. The moral of the novel is one we should all keep in mind, especially in this perception is reality era: "You are who you pretend to be. So you had better be careful who you pretend to be."

I really liked this book, it was a difficult time to relate to but Vonnegut makes it happen. The main character is a traitor of two countries but you end up feeling for him because he has no true home without his wife.

I really can't give any Vonnegut book anything but 5 stars as I consider him one of the greatest writers ever. Ever. Mother Night is one of his shorter books, and less recognized as his primary works, but it's a fantastic tale of morality and the pointlessness of existence. But it still makes you giggle while you weep inside. I suggest 2 whiskeys before reading.

Dripping with empathy and humanity, just like I've come to expect.

Allow me to share a quote that I believe sums things up nicely and is especially relevant today. It appears near the end but I do not believe it is a spoiler:

“There are plenty of good reasons for fighting,” I said, “but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too. Where’s evil? It’s that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side. It’s that part of every man that finds all kinds of ugliness so attractive. “It’s that part of an imbecile,” I said, “that punishes and vilifies and makes war gladly.”

Thank you Mr. Vonnegut, thank you Mr Vonnegut, thank you mother niiiiight.

Probably Vonnegut's best. Deep dark humor. Cleverly subversive. Serious insight into human nature without being preachy. I sometimes get annoyed with Vonnegut's preoccupation with WW-II. But this time it was worth it.

I just finished Mother Night on my Kindle Android App and am sad to see it end. I really liked the writing style and the story was well told. It was a quick read that left me wanting more. The book, in it's entirety, is probably the perfect length and a complete and satisfying package. I found it easy to read and did not find myself forcing my way through any part of it.

Kindle App - I love that I can press a word and the definition will appear (after it downloads the dictionary). I'd say my vocabulary is only average, so having the instant definitions was incredible. I would never bother in the past looking up words, but now that it's right there I can't resist. I highly recommend reading this on the Kindle Android App (and probably device).

MOTHER NIGHT was first published in 1961. It's amazing how little things have changed.

Howard W. Campbell, Jr., Vonnegut's major character, is an American who has lived in Germany since his father was transferred there when he was eleven. As an adult he is making a good living as a playwright when he is approached by a man named Frank Wirtanen who recruits him to spy for America. Wirtanen warns him that America will never admit they recruited him as a spy. Campbell becomes one of the most famous propagandists in the Nazi party, but during his broadcasts, his coughs and verbal pauses and other mannerisms send important messages to the Allies.

At the end of the war he is captured by Bernard B. O'Hare as a war criminal, but Wirtanen comes to his rescue and helps him escape to America where he is living in a run-down attic.

At the beginning of the novel Campbell is about to stand trial in Israel, having been outed by a Russian spy named Kraft-Potapov. Prior to his arrest, he is reunited with his wife Helga who he thought was dead. He is also celebrated by a collection of weird American neo-Nazis led by a crazy dentist named Lionel J.D. Jones, who thinks he can prove Jewish and negro inferiority using their teeth. Jones also publishes a newspaper called The White Christian Minuteman.

When Campbell's address is revealed in The White Christian Minuteman, all kinds of so-called patriots come looking for him, the foremost of whom is Bernard B. O'Hare, now a failed businessman who has devoted his life to the recapture of hero/war criminal Campbell.

Irony runs rampant. No one is who he/she seems to be. For me the climax of the book was when O'Hare confronts Campbell. Campbell says to O'Hare, "There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God almighty Himself hates with you, too. Where's evil? It's that large part of every man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side."

Here we are in 2007, forty-six years later, and we've still got politicians and commentators reviling "evil-doers," and Swift boaters portraying silver star winners as unpatriotic. It seems like we should've learned something in all that time.