Mother Night: A Novel
by Kurt Vonnegut
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Book Reviews of Mother Night: A Novel
Book Review: Perhaps Vonnegut's greatest book - and that's saying quite a bit
Summary: 5 Stars
Though it doesn't often get mentioned alongside Vonnegut's other masterpieces, I've always felt that Mother Night may actually be my favorite Vonnegut work, even if I can't explain why. Certainly, the central concept - in which an American becomes a prominent propagandist for the Nazis as a front for spy work which he himself doesn't understand or have any proof of - is a fascinating one, and the moral complexity of the situation is never lost on Vonnegut. And undoubtedly, the pain and emotion of the book is as strong as any of his works, if not somewhat more so, as he deals even more directly with the horrors of World War II than he did in Slaughterhouse Five, confronting head-on the world of the Nazis and attempting to understand exactly how these events could have happened. And sure, there's Vonnegut's wonderful motto to the story - "We must be careful what we pretend to be, lest we become it" - but there's so much other good writing, including what may be one of my favorite passages the man ever wrote:
"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."
In the end, it's hard to pinpoint exactly what it is I love so much about Mother Night, simply because there's so much to get lost in here, from a tragic romance to a bizarre (and funny) satire of racism, from a study of evil to a lament for humanity. Mother Night depicts a man who has done horrible actions, and even though he may have done them for what seemed like good reasons, that doesn't make it any easier to live with. Add to that Vonnegut's typically wonderful, off-kilter world, his gallows humor, his sweet hopeful cynicism, and you have an unrivaled and sadly overlooked work by a man who was one of the world's great writers.
Book Review: A Dark Novel with a Valuable Moral Lesson
Summary: 5 Stars
~Mother Night~ by Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. is a dark novel set against the backdrop of Nazi Germany initially in the 1930s. An American expatriate living abroad Howard W. Campbell, Jr. marries a German woman Helga, and works as a playwright in Germany. But a dark cloud looms over the horizon, the spectre of Nazi Germany and its violent ideology of ultra-nationalism. Campbell's parents depart Germany for the United States as the war draws near, but Campbell chooses to stay behind. The playwright becomes a propagandist for the Nazi regime, declaring himself, 'the Last Free American,' and he broadcasts radio shows throughout Germany and obviously back West for the people of the Western nations to hear. Unbenownst to the Germans, he is also an American spy, a deep-cover double agent of the Office of Strategic Services (OSS). Behind ever gasp and stutter, he is sending hidden messages to the Allies. Following the war's climatic end, Campbell finds his way back to the United States. Gripped by the loss of his wife, he is utterly alienated and gripped by melancholy. Hounded by Neo-Nazis who want to extol him as a hero and Soviet spies looking to out him as an American agent provocateur for their own sinister Machiavellian purposes, Campbell grows despondent and troubled. He might as well forget about protection from Uncle Sam who won't ever acknowledge his service to the U.S. Government. The words of his father-in-law, a dedicated German officer could haunt him, as the German proclaimed when he thought with warmth about what the Nazi creed embodied, he didn't find it emanating from the words of Adolf Hitler, but in the words of Campbell. The theme is simple: we are whatever we pretend to be, so we better be darned careful of what we pretend to be. That's the moral lesson. When we are subsumed in lies and deception: the truth doesn't always set us free, it implicates us, and convicts us. Campbell learned that lesson with much guilt and resignation. His service to Nazi creed far surpassed his service to the Western Allies.Book Review: My first Vonnegut experience, now I am eager for more
Summary: 5 Stars
For quite a while I had been planning on reading some of Vonnegut's books, but I kept forgetting and grabbing other things from my TBR list. But when a month back I saw the author interviewed in two of my favorite shows regarding his new book "A man without a country", I was once more enticed to follow-up on the idea of reading his works.
It seemed to me that "Mother Night" was a good place to start as any, even though most people's starting point would probably be "Slaughterhouse Five", which I will hopefully get around to reading soon. In "Mother Night", Vonnegut presents us with an extremely interesting setting, which contains a whole array of "gray situations", since Howard W. Campbell, Jr. tells his story as an American spy working in the German publicity machine during World War II. What makes the case even more interesting is that the narrator is not really clear regarding the events that developed during that period. Logically, one would expect Howard to say he hated what he had to do in order to support the US, but in fact we are faced with a scenario that allows for a lot more ambiguity than that. And even though, I have only read this novel by this author so far, I believe that this is one of his most salient characteristics.
Besides the interesting storyline, I was pleasantly impressed by the author's writing style, using short chapters that are somewhat linked in their main topics, but that are not completely linear. This reminds me of the work of one of my favorite Latin American authors, Eduardo Galeano, who uses a similar approach to writing. If you are interested in reading about the history Latin America and like Vonnegut's style, I highly recommend Galeano's non-fiction book "The Open Veins of Latin America".
Coming back to Vonnegut, I recommend "Mother Night" to all those that enjoy stories in which ethics and the concept of what is wrong and what is right play a central role. As to me, I am already looking forward to my next Vonnegut read.
Book Review: One of Vonnegut's Finest Books
Summary: 5 Stars
Kurt Vonnegut was treated by psychiatrists but, since I'm a veteran, too, I believe his troubles might have been entirely PTSD. Vonnegut was obsessed with Europe in WWII and wrote much about it. One of his finest novels -- the only one that wasn't sci fi or fantasy -- is MOTHER NIGHT, made into a 1990s movie starring Nick Nolte. It's worth seeing, although Nolte was miscast.
But, as usual, the book is much better. MOTHER NIGHT is the story of Howard Campbell, an American who is in Germany, married to a German woman, when WWII breaks out. Under Army Intelligence orders Howard acts as a "Lord HawHaw" in Germany during WWII and sends code signals to the Allies during his broadcasts. His apolitical (and much loved) wife is the daughter of a fanatic Nazi, and Howard is pulled this way and that until he doesn't understand his own loyalties, becoming bewildered and confused. After losing his wife in the war Howard wants to die and turns himself in to the Israelis as a war criminal, but ironically, is released when the US Army vouches for him. He returns to the US for the first time since about 1920. You should not expect a happy ending.
Now and then Vonnegut throws in comic relief to lighten an essentially bleak story, especially his lampoons of white supremacists in America and the hilarious name of a Nazi, "Kraptauer".
DON'T MISS THIS BOOK IF YOU HAVEN'T READ IT. Superb psychology, and in a way it's Vonnegut's own story, because of his ultra-German upbringing in a German neighborhood in Indianapolis, where every block had a string quartet and someone who could recite Schiller's poems and direct Lessing's plays in German. Although he hated Hiler he was raised to be proud of being a cultural German, as every child should be of his/her own heritage. How conflicted Kurt Vonnegut must have been! Why didn't the Army send German Americans to the Pacific, as they sent Japanese Americans to Europe?
Book Review: The potential power of writing is fully realized here
Summary: 5 Stars
My first Vonnegut book shook me firmly and often. Here is the best book I have read so far this year. American Howard W. Campbell Jr. winds up living in Germany in the pre-world war years, due to family circumstances. When war breaks out there, he is an unassuming playwright. He is recruited as an American spy agent, and agrees, without much conviction, to give it a try. He is wildly successful, not only for the Americans, but for the Germans as well. His role there as a radio propagandist earns him legions of devout young followers, and he quickly rises in prestige among the German Reich. And his own identity, if he ever really had one, becomes murky in the life that has taken shape for him. The story follows him as decades go by after the war, and he is living an unassuming life in America again, except for his status as a Nazi war criminal. He has seemingly been abandonded by his Amercian government.
The book is short, and is packed with powerful moments. It is impressive how the imagery and moods are so effectively laid out with each short scene. Every few pages evokes emotion that should have taken many chapters to achieve. Campbell is a brutally honest character when it comes to his analysis of his own nature, feelings, actions and intentions. The story is told in the format of a journal he is writing about his experiences, while awaiting his war trial. Verdicts are left to the reader, as to what his responsibility truly was. I found him to be a very tragic figure, all in all, perhaps unable to sort out for himself what his true identity and nature was.
Broken down, this could be another case to support the "war is hell" theme. But it is, at its heart, a study of human character. It is, I believe, a celebration of the written word. Vonnegut throws that party like few I have read.