Mother Night

Jun 14, 2012 Jason rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: for-kindle, 2011, reviewed, thrill-me-chill-me-fulfill-me

This is the best Vonnegut I’ve read so far. American Nazi Howard W. Campbell, Jr. is awaiting trial on war crimes. A traitor to the American people, Campbell is responsible for the deliberate spread of damaging propaganda throughout Germany and its occupied territories during World War II. He is an evil, dangerous man who is undoubtedly guilty of high treason.

Or is he?

As the account of Campbell’s life in Germany unfolds, much is revealed about his motives, the benign sequence of events leading t...more

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Dec 26, 2011 MJ Nicholls rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: merkins, novellas, worshipped

As a deliberate contrast to Jonathan Littell’s 1000-page monster The Kindly Ones, I re-read this early Vonnegut masterpiece. The 1997 Robert B. Weide adaptation with Nick Nolte is one of my favourite movies, and where the novel is structured in typical nonlinear fashion, the movie embellishes and adds colour to the novel in its linear form. The two mediums compliment each other perfectly, so if you haven’t seen the film version, do it soon! And if you haven’t read this brilliant novella, the co...more

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May 04, 2013 Amanda rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: book-club-made-me-do-it, kick-ass

When most people think of Kurt Vonnegut, the novels Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle immediately come to mind. It's a shame that more people aren't familiar with Mother Night, a novel in which Vonnegut explores the nature of moral ambiguity and what high-minded ideals we sacrifice on the altar of war. It's a skillful blend of Vonnegut's trademark dark humor and philosophical musings about human morality as observed through the lens of war. To put it simply, this is some good stuff.

Sitting in...more When most people think of Kurt Vonnegut, the novels Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle immediately come to mind. It's a shame that more people aren't familiar with Mother Night, a novel in which Vonnegut explores the nature of moral ambiguity and what high-minded ideals we sacrifice on the altar of war. It's a skillful blend of Vonnegut's trademark dark humor and philosophical musings about human morality as observed through the lens of war. To put it simply, this is some good stuff.

Sitting in an Israeli jail and writing his memoirs, Howard Campbell awaits trial for war crimes as a Nazi in World War II. As Howard himself says, "I am an American by birth, a Nazi by reputation, and a nationless person by inclination" (1). And this is the root of Howard's problem: he has no true identity. As he ruminates on his past, we see how the apolitical Howard was drawn into events that eclipsed the simple life he longed to live as an artist writing plays for his muse and wife, the lovely Helga.

Howard's situation is a unique one. An American who moved to Germany as a child and seamlessly assimilated into German culture prior to any rumblings of war, Howard makes the perfect candidate for an American spy. However, to remain above suspicion, Howard must align himself with the Nazi cause by pretending to be a Nazi propagandist, eventually becoming the voice of the Reich through his radio broadcasts. Through a series of coughs, sneezes, and sniffs, Howard sends coded information out to the Americans at the same time he spews vile invective against the Jewish people.

So what's the problem? He was a good guy, right? That's how it would normally be perceived, but as Vonnegut cautions, "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be" (v). Maintaining this dual identity weighs heavily upon Howard in the years after the war which robbed him of everything: his family, his friends, his art, and his Helga. Howard excelled as a propagandist--so good, in fact, his father-in-law tells him that Howard, not Hitler and not Goebbels, convinced him to become a Nazi. Howard's American handler even claims Campbell "was one of the most vicious sons of bitches who ever lived" (188). Knowing that it was his words and his voice that convinced so many to hate in the name of God is a guilt that Howard can never alleviate, especially given that his communications with the Americans never took the form of words. He never knew what information he was passing on to the Americans, nor what, if any, good came from it. In the end, he can never be certain if the good he did outweighed (or at least balanced out) the evil his words inspired in the hearts of men. The question is, do pure motivations absolve heinous outcomes? As Howard's past begins to catch up with him, he must confront these questions and try to determine who Howard Campbell has become in the shadow of war.

I think what is most intriguing about the novel is that Howard Campbell is the ultimate unreliable narrator. A man who is skilled with words and at shaping the perceptions of others, it's important to remember that, in this metafiction, it is Howard Campbell writing his own life's story. Even in the end we cannot be certain whether or not we come to know the real Howard Campbell as the resulting narrative may be Campbell's masterwork of propaganda--rewriting his own history with an eye to posterity. Howard Campbell may be a fiction created by the man himself, a constantly shifting personality recreating himself to fit the times in which he lives. After all, we become what we pretend to be.

Cross posted at This Insignificant Cinder (less)

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Jul 27, 2007 Dan rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: everyone

This is one of my favorite books. I picked this book up and read it through in one sitting. I couldn't put it down I was so engaged.

This book presents the moral dilemma of Howard W. Campbell Jr. an American who became a Nazi propagandist. However, he only became a Nazi propagandist because he was spying for the USA. Yet, he was a really good propagandist. His dilemma is this: Does the good of spying for America obviate and out weigh the evils he did by making propaganda for the Nazis or do his s...more

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May 09, 2007 Aaron rated it 5 of 5 stars Recommends it for: Everyone

In a beautiful allegory of human duality, Vonnegut presents us with a character wavering on two worlds: pre-WWII and post-war; good and evil; certainty and ambiguity; past and present; life and death. As an American spy during the war, the main character is now faced with the ambivalence of whether he helped the Allies more than Germany, and if his civic responsibility was anything more than self-serving. Vonnegut delves deep into the psychological repercussions of ethical decisions, and society...more

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Apr 08, 2013 Lorenzo rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2013-readings, aaa-my-library, american

Today I will tell you about an interesting and unexplicably underrated semi-underground tribe: the Vonnegutians.

Either urban or rural, the Vonnegutians are spread all over the world (with primeval colonies in Indianapolis and the Galapagos islands) and cover at least three generations.

Tendentially secularists, the Vonnegutians may however be inclined to join the subtropical doctrine of Bokononism at an earlier or a later stage of their lives.

Regretfully, the social behavior of the Vonnegutians...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Chris rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Right up front Kurt Vonnegut explains the moral of this short novel: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be. We then are shuffled rapidly through a cast of post-war men and women wearing masks, decked out to publicly play an adopted role, whilst concealing their true feelings and being underneath. The champion dissembler is Howard W. Campbell Jr., a former deep-cover American operative in the heart of Nazi Germany, who so brilliantly espoused propaganda and spa...more Right up front Kurt Vonnegut explains the moral of this short novel: We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be. We then are shuffled rapidly through a cast of post-war men and women wearing masks, decked out to publicly play an adopted role, whilst concealing their true feelings and being underneath. The champion dissembler is Howard W. Campbell Jr., a former deep-cover American operative in the heart of Nazi Germany, who so brilliantly espoused propaganda and spat venom he did not believe in that he convinced the world of his rabid support for a cause he was secretly fighting against.

Years later he is living a quiet and faceless existence in New York City, his service to his country never acknowledged, the damage of his words reverberating still. As is its wont, life decides to alter the tempo of the music of its pageant, and whilst this new dance steers Howard inexorably towards a date with the hangman, a parade of new and old faces enter and re-enter his life; love once more warmly kisses and then coldly bites; and certain old truths and beliefs are shown to have been lies and illusions all along.

My expectations for Mother Night were quite high, having read so many glowing reviews over the years. I feel like I should have loved it, whereas I could only muster up an appreciative like. I knew I wanted something further from the story and yet couldn't quite assemble a concrete grievance from my lingering dissatisfaction; perhaps it's that I didn't find Campbell a particularly compelling character, his story a bit too abstract to hold close; perhaps Vonnegut confounds through an ability to impart a relatively simple and straightforward prose with a humor and meaning that, compacted so efficiently, lends itself to to being underestimated, underappreciated. It will be interesting to see if Slaughterhouse-Five—whenever I finally give it its overdue due—will affect me in the same manner. In any case, Mother Night, like so many books, should benefit from a second reading down the road and a reappraisal made of its more mature charms.(less)

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Dec 01, 2007 Nyna rated it 5 of 5 stars

I have always enjoyed the way that Vonnegut sees the world, and his books, while written with well-formed characters and usually somewhat interesting plot-lines, have always struck me as 'idea' books. This book had a lot of ideas in it. They made me think, and usually I liked the way they directed my thoughts.

This is one of my favorite Vonnegut novels. It's something about how likable Campbell is, even at his very worst. About how the one thing he can say about himself with pride is that he has...more

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Nov 22, 2008 Manny rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: strongly-recommended, too-sexy-for-maiden-aunts

Vastly underrated piece of black comedy, about a World War 2 double agent whose cover is a Nazi propagandist in the style of Lord Haw-Haw. Vonnegut says in the preface that this is the only one of his books where he knows what the moral is. You are what you pretend to be, so be careful about who you pretend to be. For my money, Vonnegut's second best book, running Cat's Cradle very close.

It's not just me - the great Doris Lessing also wrote once that she couldn't quite understand why this book...more

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Jul 07, 2007 Laila rated it 3 of 5 stars Recommends it for: dark humor fans

Shelves: read-in-2007

Vonnegut is a breath of fresh air. I read him from time to time to balance the optimist/escapist in me. He's very dark, but always with a sense of humor. This book was an extremely fast read, and it had a lot of good things to say about how humans can fool themselves into believing that what they're doing is right.

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Jan 25, 2009 Ben rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, read-2007

One of my least favorite Vonnegut novels simply because it doesn't feel like Vonnegut. It has a different style to it and doesn't have the same dose of humor that makes his works so enjoyable. However, it seems that people that don't care much for Vonnegut really like this one.

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Jun 30, 2011 Sarah rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: fiction, historical, read-in-2011

Mother Night is perhaps one of the most incredible, thought provoking and haunting books discussing human morality and perspective that I have ever had the honor of reading. This isn’t a review; rather it’s a diatribe about a book that literally knocked me off my chair with its brilliance. Mother Night is uncomfortable. It pushes the boundaries of perspective and forces us to ask questions that many would prefer not to ask. However, in the end it’s well worth it. Mother Night is a book that will...more

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Oct 01, 2012 Kirstine rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: e-books, favourites

Before this, I'd never read anything by Kurt Vonnegut.

From this day forward, consider me a fan.

It's strange, really, how some books fall into your life at exactly the right time. I don't know how it happens. If we somehow unconsciously know that this is the book we need and pick it up and let it take us places. Perhaps. All I know is this particular book came into my life at the most opportune moment. I say opportune, because I just recently acquired the skills to really understand this book,...more

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Nov 23, 2008 Liz rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wow.... wow. I am just not sure what to make of this book. As a jew who still cannot think hard about the holocaust without tearing up, part of me found this book offensive. But then the literary soul in me appreciates it for its twisted view. And I do appreciate that all in all, this book is a commentary about war and more specifically, about human nature as related to war.

I probably would never have picked up a book written from the point of view of a nazi (albeit an american spy-nazi). I hav...more Wow.... wow. I am just not sure what to make of this book. As a jew who still cannot think hard about the holocaust without tearing up, part of me found this book offensive. But then the literary soul in me appreciates it for its twisted view. And I do appreciate that all in all, this book is a commentary about war and more specifically, about human nature as related to war.

I probably would never have picked up a book written from the point of view of a nazi (albeit an american spy-nazi). I have to admit, when I reached the end of chapter 44 when the old holocaust survivor speaks to the protagonist, I had to put the book down because of the sudden sick feeling I had in my stomach, and the knot in my throat.

But then as I put the book down, I appreciated the parallel between the protagonist (basically, a nazi/american spy who kept doing bad things because he was ordered to do so... and then continued on at this point in the story because he had no will left) and all the people who blindly and meekly lived and worked and walked to their deaths in the concentration camps. And that is when you realize that all agents of war are drones that just walk forward and do what they say... and that is his commentary on war. And then the part of me who loves that kind of irony, and its underlying message, could keep on reading.

Vonnegut has a way of getting you into the mind of someone whom you might not identify with. And of course, I did not identify with this man. But by the end of the book I really appreciated Vonnegut's voice, and the notion of "schizophrenia" - that someone can have two selves, the self who can be a spy doing "good" for his country, and the self that could be a nazi all along. And isn't that what people who willingly make war are like - they have a self that thinks they are doing good, that believes in their patriotism, and then the self that is willing to kill or help others kill to "do good". I love the way Vonnegut highlights hypocrisy.
I love Vonnegut because he makes me think about things, and try to understand and make sense of things (even things I don't accept) that I would not normally think of.

I just don't know if I can recommend this book to someone who is jewish or lost any family members in world war II. If there was a jew who could stomach this book and who still wants to walk away loving Vonnegut for his literary prowess, I suggest not reading the introduction.

I also want to mention that I usually dislike war books, and tend to space out when Vonnegut starts describing battle, etc. but this book had very little of that and was more about life and inner thoughts of those in war (and after). (less)

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Sam Hey,

So I have just finished reading this book, basically read it in one day, I went through the book pretty fast so please make allowance if it appear...more Hey,

So I have just finished reading this book, basically read it in one day, I went through the book pretty fast so please make allowance if it appears that I have misunderstood or perhaps overlooked some important detail. I was left quite confused after reading this book and so I immediately took up to the internet to look for an analysis of the book and that's how I landed here, on this page.

I am specifically responding to you Liz, because your review seemed more relevant for my purpose. You detected the same difficulty I had while reading this book. I am an Israeli Jew. I have to say, frankly, that I did not appreciate this story; I did find it offensive to a certain degree. As you put it, properly, I could not identify with a Nazi. After all the Nazis have done I think it improper to be giving them the benefit of the doubt, and this stuff about German Nazis and their personal lives, perhaps written to make them appear more humane, is not deserving of my attention.

The Nazi status of Howard W. Campbell, Jr., is somewhat ambiguous, but his wife Helga and their associates surely were not American spies, there is no excuse for his wife, she and her family, specifically her father were Nazis. So Campbell loved a Nazi woman. This much cannot be disputed. I just don’t see any way to justify Campbell. Aside from his Nazi propaganda (in his defence, he was spying for America), it should also be noted that his whole attitude towards the Holocaust was marked by indifference at best, and at worst I would observe that his relationships with Nazis were quite intimate and friendly. He said it himself that he depended on the Nazis to attend his plays. He also said that he neither liked nor disliked the Nazis. This attitude alone offends me greatly. If he was really an authentic American spy he would have had a dislike for the Nazis. How could have he been a genuine American spy if he didn’t perceive the Nazis as an enemy, as a real spy ought to have perceived them. He had no real feeling of helping the Americans or disliking Nazis, therefore I must conclude that his claim of being a spy was made only to ease his guilt and to try to justify his actions. What’s my point? The guy didn’t dislike Nazis. Campbell did not mind the Nazis... Any person with moral decency would have been if not publicly, than privately dismayed with the Nazis and what they have done. Campbell wasn’t even privately, that is in his own thoughts he never said he was against the Nazis. He did acknowledge the insanity of Nazism but he did not condemn it.
I was very uneasy reading this book; it has a sense of ambivalence all throughout.

Also after the war, when Campbell returned to New York he allowed Dr. Jones and the others believe that he was a real Nazi, a real white supremacist... Why would he do that? I think if he had any real moral integrity he would discourage their advances of glorifying his Nazi past. He seemed to have absolutely no qualms playing his part as a Nazi.

I also cannot justify his job, creating Nazi propaganda. The end didn’t justify the means! Even Campbell’s father-in-law said that he wouldn’t be angry if Campbell turned out to be an American spy, because in the end Campbell would have done much more damage than help. Does the act of helping American spies justify the propelling of the Nazi propaganda machine? Would Campbell still agree to “spy” for America if it required him to shoot Jews? If he agreed to incite violence against Jews through his propaganda, in order to be a convincing spy, what other offences would he agree to commit, in order to be a convincing spy? Did Campbell have any scruples about spreading his hateful propaganda? Perhaps both Frank Wirtanen and Howard W. Campbell should be held accountable for this misstep. As a moral agent Campbell should admit some of the responsibility, he wasn’t forced to spy, and listening to colonel Wirtanen wasn’t necessarily the moral thing to do. This was Campbell’s lapse in judgement.
In addition, the author failed to properly explain or prove that the spying was really useful or essential, and Kurt Vonnegut gave the reader no incentive to believe that the spying could justify or compensate for the spread of Nazi propaganda.

It also occurred to me the possibility that the narrator wasn’t entirely honest with the readers; maybe the whole American spy thing was just a cover story. Some movie I watched springs to mind. It’s another movie about the Nazis, it’s called “Inglourious Basterds “. In this movie the character of Colonel Hans Landa of the SS, is hunting and killing Jews, by the end of the movie, Colonel Hans Landa acquires American soldiers as hostages, and he proposes a deal in which he would release the hostages and in exchange America would falsely pronounce him to be an American spy and a hero. This closely resembles Campbell’s situation being a Nazi war-criminal and then claiming a cover story of actually being an American spy.

I definitely could not make myself appreciate a book that attempts to humanize or justify Nazi criminals.
Unlike Kurt Vonnegut, I think there is a fine line between morally acceptable actions and morally unacceptable actions. Being indifferent in Nazi Germany and spreading anti-Semitic propaganda is morally unacceptable.

(less)
Nov 02, 2009 05:38pm

Liz I agree Sam - your comments are really well thought-out.
It's a shame, because I really love Vonnegut, and this book makes me see real fault with him....more
Nov 03, 2009 05:27am

Knight Parrot Heya, just one point - i think that the characters aim to be ambivalent to politics is meant to be presented by Vonnegut as an impossible stance. the...more
updated Dec 21, 2009 05:41am

Oct 04, 2011 oriana rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: read-2009, read-2011, read-for-work

God, this book is so devastating. Vonnegut is so chameleonic, or something, how the lightness of his prose brilliantly belies the darkness of his themes, but oh my god, I can't even think how to express how sad this one made me. Everything is so sharply focused, every word is so perfectly, harrowingly placed. The loops and recursions and double-agents and plots within plots: all perfect. All awful. All honed for maximum pathos and horror without becoming maudlin or overdramatic. I feel punched i...more

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Oct 20, 2012 Bettie rated it 5 of 5 stars

Shelves: autumn-2012, teh-brillianz, published-1961, nazi-related, satire

Opted out of the full champagne afternoon - just the one glass and a surreptitious exit to have a brisk solitary walk with this - it is superb.


Make new friends,
but keep the old.
One is silver,
the other is gold.

A circle is round,
it has no end.
That's how long,
I will be your friend.

3* Slaughterhouse Five
5* Mother Night
3* God Bless You, Mr Rosewater
TR A Man Without a Country

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Apr 14, 2008 Philip rated it 4 of 5 stars

in tight witty prose vonnegut relays the tale of a disenchanted american idealist and writer caught in the throws of WWII Nazi Germany who makes it safely through the war by "impersonating" a Nazi propogandist so succesfully as to rise to the top of the Nazi ranks and become loathed throughout the world all while believing nothing of what he says and serving secretly as an American spy. Is this man good? Evil? Merely human? Kurt knows. Let him tell you the rest. This book rocked. It's an easy, e...more

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Dec 03, 2008 Jeanette rated it 3 of 5 stars

Shelves: all-fiction

Yet another weird story from one of our sultans of satire. I wanted to read this because the main character was briefly discussed in Slaughterhouse Five. When I finished the book today I realized I must have already read it at some point in the past. There were just too many things that sounded familiar. Oh, well, it only took a couple of days to read.

There is, of course, all kinds of satire and social commentary in the book, but Vonnegut tells you right up front what the "moral" is.
From the i...more

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Nov 30, 2008 Molly rated it 3 of 5 stars

This early Vonnegut book begins with an introduction wherein Vonnegut claims that the story's moral is a warning that we are what we pretend to be. What follows is an editor's forward, signed by Vonnegut, which introduces the purported text of the confessions of Howard J. Campbell. Campbell was an American spy (although the American government cannot/will not confirm this) who as a German radio propagandist during WWII communicated secret messages to the American government. The text itself, wit...more

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Mar 04, 2013 Devon rated it 4 of 5 stars

Wow.

This book is phenomenal, and rings of Vonnegut's characteristic style--leaping here and there to tell the story. First in the present, then twenty years in the past, then five years ago, then back in the present again. It's never hard to follow even when jumping around, and that style serves him well (as it always does!)

Of course when you pick up a book about a Nazi War Criminal, you certainly don't expect to sympathise or root for the man. But Vonnegut explains that not everything is as it...more

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Feb 11, 2013 Justine Philyaw rated it 4 of 5 stars

In a recent book review, I came across the idea that all criticism is autobiographical. With that in mind, here is my review of Mother Night:

Howard Campbell's story is another interesting perspective on World War II. On any war, really. If one survives such turbulent times at any costs, how do you reconcile your actions once the war ends? You did what you had to do, but what now? What does surviving mean?

Somehow, I've read a few works by Vonnegut (the short story "Harrison Bergeron" is a favorit...more

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Jan 19, 2013 Mutlu rated it 5 of 5 stars

Campbell Jr. bir savaş suçlusudur. Tel Aviv'de bir hapishanede duruşmasını ve idamını beklemektedir. Nazilerin nefret tacirliğini ve propaganda borazanlığını yapmış, bir tiyatro metni yazarı, şair, aşık, esasen karısından başka ulusu olmayan bir adamdır. Aynı zamanda bir casustur, şifreli mesajlarını Ari ırka adanmış yayınları arasına saklayan bir müttefik casusu. Safdil bir hayalperesttir, bu yüzden Alam eşini ve büyüdüğü ülkeyi bırakıp kaçmamıştır. Savaşın sanata ve aşka dokunamayacağına inanm...more Campbell Jr. bir savaş suçlusudur. Tel Aviv'de bir hapishanede duruşmasını ve idamını beklemektedir. Nazilerin nefret tacirliğini ve propaganda borazanlığını yapmış, bir tiyatro metni yazarı, şair, aşık, esasen karısından başka ulusu olmayan bir adamdır. Aynı zamanda bir casustur, şifreli mesajlarını Ari ırka adanmış yayınları arasına saklayan bir müttefik casusu. Safdil bir hayalperesttir, bu yüzden Alam eşini ve büyüdüğü ülkeyi bırakıp kaçmamıştır. Savaşın sanata ve aşka dokunamayacağına inanmaktadır. Dünya savaşı, fikirlerini değiştirecektir ama...

Usta kişisel geçmişinin en korkunç anılarını öylesine yoğun ve güçlü bir dilde aktarmış ki hayranlık duymamak zor. Dünya savaşında Dresden'de esir düşmesi, şehrin bombalanarak yıkımı, annesinin intihar girişimi gibi güçlü kişisel unsurlar hikayeye yoğunluk, samimiyet katıyor ve zenginleştiriyor. İhaneti tüm kurgusunun esas unsuru olarak alan yazar yarı-gerçekler ve zorlama önkabullerle herşeyi, her karakteri griye boyamış. Hiçbir bilgi parçası tam olarak gerçek değil. Bir sanatçı kadar iyi yalan söyleyebilecek kim var ki? Bu yüzden Campbell hayatta kalan tek casus, Reich'a bu kadar yakın olup da canını kurtarabilen tek insan.

Herkes birbirine ihanet ediyor, aşk, sanat, idealler... hepsi ihanetin ve nefretin demir ökçeleri altında formunu kaybediyor, bozunuyor. Romanın girişindeki hapishane gardiyanlarını karakterin psychesinin parçaları olarak bize tanıtan yazar, karakteri kişisel ilişkileri bağlamında tanıtmış ve romana hakim olan travma sonrası duygusuzluğu, çağa ve insanlara egemen olan kayıtsızlığı diyaloglardan ziyade samimi monologlara gömmüş. Herkes kurban istiyor... insanlar, akımlar, ülkeler hepsi kurbana aç. Bu hikayede ise kurban Campbell Jr. hayatlarından memnun olmayan insanlar suçu başkasına atabilmek için nefrete sığınıyor, kişisel şeytanlar ediniyor ve pisliklerini dünyaya kusuyorlar...

Campbell, aslında kimdir? bir casus mu? bir hain mi? bir aşık mı yada sadakatsiz mi? istemediği halde her 2 tarafa çalışmak zorunda kalan karısından ve yazılarından başka sarılacağı bir şeyi olmayan bu adam herkes tarafından ihanete uğruyor. Ülkesi hizmetini reddediyor, Almanya onu yargılamak ve asmak istiyor, Ruslar onu Amerika- Nazi ortaklığı komplosuna tanık olarak istiyor, İsrail ise 6 milyon insanın ölümünü onun propagandasına yüklemek... Bu devasa saklambaç oyununda, kaçmak ve kovalanmaktan bitkin düşmüş biri o sadece.

Eserinde bayrak sallamıyor yazar. Hiçbir ülke ve ırk üstün değil burada, hepsi aynı... hepsi insan ve hepsinin eksiklikler var. O kadar güzel metaforlarla ,insanlıktan çıkarmadan parmakla gösterip kin kusmadan eleştirmiş ki yazar edebi gücü okura şapka çıkartıyor. Mizahı siyahın öyle yoğun bir tonu ki kimi zaman bir pasaja tekrar dönmek zorunda bırakabiliyor okuru. (less)

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Dec 30, 2012 Daryl Leyesa rated it 4 of 5 stars

Recommended to Daryl by: maria mendoza

Its back cover review says that MOTHER NIGHT is "a daring challenge to our moral sense….turning black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all."

I agree, it is time to question what is black and what is white; One can choose to be black even though one's color is white; and one can desire white even though he or she wears only black. But do their choices lead them to a gray? Who knows? Once in a while, the reds wave some yellows; the yellows mouth some reds; b...more Its back cover review says that MOTHER NIGHT is "a daring challenge to our moral sense….turning black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all."

I agree, it is time to question what is black and what is white; One can choose to be black even though one's color is white; and one can desire white even though he or she wears only black. But do their choices lead them to a gray? Who knows? Once in a while, the reds wave some yellows; the yellows mouth some reds; but do they wave or mouth some oranges? Maybe, sometimes.

I believe the book affirms this: Choices are labeled by the colors provided in the color wheel –as institutionalized by society (taught since grade school). The force acted upon the wheel blurs the colors –as painted by the individual. The force is generated by one's process of making decisions. Now what keeps the wheel likely to turn or stop is yet another blurred picture and always a mix of something. So what's the point?

Point is, or rather the question is, how do I relate with the colors and the blurs in the life of Vonnegut's protagonist – Howard Campbell, Jr., a playwright turned spy, whose musings include: where there's life, there is life; a nation can be a nation of two; a monogamous Casanova is possible to find; and relative harmony can sound like the loudspeakers in Auschwitz blasting classical music with the grand entrance of corpse-carriers.

I believe this Campbell character wondered too long at the formula of complementary colors until one day, he just stopped. He saw evil as that part of a person that hates without limit and thinks that God hates along (especially with the part that justifies wars). In that moment, he saw himself as not evil, but not colorless as he would have wanted to be. So again, what's the point?

In the end, Campbell had to punish himself for his crime, i.e. not being free with the colors he himself had painted nor by the palette that society armed him with. After all, "he served evil too openly and good too secretly." The former he did by starting out as a spy; the latter by writing his poetry.

With MOTHER NIGHT, Vonnegut leaves us with the only moral he/Campbell seems to have: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."(less)

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Nov 27, 2012 David Stephens rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: kurt-vonnegut

Having begun with some of Vonnegut's more experimental fiction, it seems odd to me how much more straightforward and structurally coherent Mother Night is. That's not to say it doesn't have its quirks or postmodern aspects, but the story is told in mostly linear fashion and the characters don't seem as cartoonish as they sometimes do. Moreover, the tone of the book is one of sadness with only tiny moments of comedy interspersed throughout. Even so, Mother Night still ends up being every bit as c...more Having begun with some of Vonnegut's more experimental fiction, it seems odd to me how much more straightforward and structurally coherent Mother Night is. That's not to say it doesn't have its quirks or postmodern aspects, but the story is told in mostly linear fashion and the characters don't seem as cartoonish as they sometimes do. Moreover, the tone of the book is one of sadness with only tiny moments of comedy interspersed throughout. Even so, Mother Night still ends up being every bit as complex and thought provoking as any of Vonnegut's other works.

The book is in the form of Howard W. Campbell, Jr.'s memoirs as he writes from an Israeli prison while awaiting his trial for Nazi war crimes. He relates how he was born in New York and moved to Germany while he was still young. He eventually married a German woman and became associated with Nazi propaganda. It is not until later he reveals that he had been asked by the American government to pose as a Nazi to broadcast German secrets surreptitiously. Eventually, Campbell returned to America where he lived in squalor for many years before being discovered by a Russian spy, a rag-tag group of American fascists, a woman claiming to be Campbell's long lost wife, and a seemingly virtuous American soldier.

The main issue of the novel concerns Campbell's status: is he a Nazi propagandist and war criminal or an American spy doing good amidst the Germans? At first, it is easier to believe the latter and feel sympathy for him as he appears to have allowed himself to be put in a bad situation solely to help his country. However, Campbell basically does nothing to dissuade others that he has committed any crimes, which indicates some acknowledgement on his part of the role he played for the Germans. This also suggests he is aware of the different aspects that make up each individual person, especially himself. He is a generous, loving husband, but he is also a conniving propagandist. The two cannot be separated.

And, it is this compartmentalization of the self that leads to a deeper issue: that wars seem to take place within individuals as much as on the battlefield. People contain both good and bad impulses and depending on their situation, can act beneficently or malevolently and justify either choice. They must be careful, though, not to think of themselves as entirely good because that gives them the ability to dehumanize others they consider evil. In the process of eliminating or mitigating that alleged evil, they themselves can commit acts every bit as depraved as those they seek to eliminate.

Even with as complicated as this novel becomes, it still manages to be a page turner. I found myself slowing down here and there to ponder questions the novel raises but, otherwise, zipping through as quickly as I could. It's a solid read that one could enjoy simply as a compelling story, but the philosophical inquiries make its enjoyment that much more lasting.(less)

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Sep 04, 2012 Robert Delikat rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: fiction, historical-fiction

“We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” This is one of the most often quoted of Kurt Vonnegut’s writings and one of the central themes of this selection. Because it is revealed early in the book that the main character and storyteller pretends to be the broadcaster of Nazi propaganda during WWII, it’s not much of a spoiler. It is also revealed early on that he is an agent who sends coded messages to the Americans in his broadcasts. Therein is the tensio...more “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” This is one of the most often quoted of Kurt Vonnegut’s writings and one of the central themes of this selection. Because it is revealed early in the book that the main character and storyteller pretends to be the broadcaster of Nazi propaganda during WWII, it’s not much of a spoiler. It is also revealed early on that he is an agent who sends coded messages to the Americans in his broadcasts. Therein is the tension in the book between the “good” and “evil” roles the protagonist must play. And, there are layers here to the good and evil dichotomy: do the ends justify the means and how does society and history deal with those individuals who do evil things to achieve righteous goals.

This all sounds like a book that might be rather reflective and philosophical and, for some, this may turn out to but need not be the case. The book starts off simply enough and contains incidentals that are seemingly tangential but all of which interweave and come together in the end with a rather unexpected conclusion. The story is haunting from beginning to end. If you are anything like me, this is a tale that will stay with you for days after finishing it. This is simple and beautiful prose about some of the complexity of our human nature.

The book is more meta-fiction than historical fiction. While the book has been characterized as black comedy, for me the book was deadly serious. I would not even call it gallows humor. When it comes to this time and place in history, I find nothing humorous nor do I think that the author intended that. The book does not seem to purport to dramatize, with any accuracy, core events that actually happened in way of the protagonist. The historical figures, places and things relative to WWII are there but, with regard to this Nazi propagandist, spy for the U.S. around whom the whole story revolves, no such person existed.

One of the best narrators of audiobooks, Victor Bevine, reads the book literally with short bursts of “..,” he said, “..,” she said, “..,” he said” that were totally distracting. If this were not such an incredible book, I would have been totally put off by this kind of nonsense production and I cannot help but forgive this shortcoming. In fact, Mr. Bevine is a great performer of different character voices and this kind of “he said” reading was not necessary. His performance of various characters in the Hyperion Cantos is almost without peer. This must have been a decision on the part of the producer or publisher Audible Modern Vanguard but it was a decision that did not do this wonderful book justice. Strange that the word modern is in the publisher’s name. This is not the way modern audiobooks should be produced. That aside, the book is still highly recommended.

Story and Writing: 5 Stars
Narrator: 5 Stars
Decision to use He said-, She said-type of production: 0 Stars
(less)

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Jul 31, 2012 Adam rated it 4 of 5 stars

There seems to be a fairly commonly held belief among certain sorts of literary types that Kurt Vonnegut is one of those writers who serves as an acceptable introduction to and part of more or less Serious Reading, that phase that usually comes just after you are wowed by The Stand, and just before you make contact with Great Literature. This belief might have basis in Vonnegut's overall inconsistency, his status as a Popular Author and Cult Figure, or some other equally ridiculous reason, but w...more There seems to be a fairly commonly held belief among certain sorts of literary types that Kurt Vonnegut is one of those writers who serves as an acceptable introduction to and part of more or less Serious Reading, that phase that usually comes just after you are wowed by The Stand, and just before you make contact with Great Literature. This belief might have basis in Vonnegut's overall inconsistency, his status as a Popular Author and Cult Figure, or some other equally ridiculous reason, but whatever its source, this belief is what keeps Vonnegut from being properly embraced in academic circles as a literary master.

Of course, nobody should care about all that nonsense and whatever it might mean to be a Canonical Author, because Kurt Vonnegut, despite his fairly obvious flaws, is surely one of the brightest and most impactful writers of the 20th century. His work is strikingly imaginative, achingly sad and human in the way lots of writers want to be, but aren't, and is of course very funny and accessible, which might also be why he's still a Popular Author and not a Canonical Author, though maybe he's getting there in more forward-thinking English departments, which are usually only fifty or so years behind the times.

Mother Night is the first Vonnegut book I've read in a long time. I blazed through a significant portion of his output in my late teens. Since then, I've read just Breakfast of Champions, revisiting it and finding it just as good as I'd remembered it to be. It remains my favourite Vonnegut novel and one of my favourite novels, period.

Mother Night has not unseated Breakfast of Champions, but was a remarkable reading experience, nonetheless. An easy and quick read, maybe, but incredibly dense and intriguing, forcing confrontation with some very difficult moral questions that are pretty hard to settle. It's basically about an American turned Nazi propagandist, who is really not a Nazi propagandist, but an American agent, but maybe really is a Nazi propagandist, or maybe not. Vonnegut writes in the preface that he, for once, knows what the moral of the story is, and provides a pithy rendition of it: "You are what you pretend to be, so be careful about who you pretend to be." But this, while fundamentally accurate, is ironically facile compared to what follows in the text proper.

The novel is an espionage novel the way Slaughterhouse-Five is an SF novel. Conventions appear but are not particularly important, whether subverted or not, since they simply provide a framework for what Vonnegut wants to accomplish. Vonnegut's characterization is usually what distinguishes his best work from his lesser work, and Howard W. Campbell Jr. is one of his best fictional creations, an intensely compelling figure who is impossible to pin down, who is at once repellent and deeply human. Whatever your reaction to the narrative, it's hard to feel apathetic about his journey and fate, and that absence of apathy is key. The novel's narrative has a few too many twists and turns that are perhaps unnecessary and a little cheap, which is why I'm not giving this my rare five-star rating, but Vonnegut's prose is clear and sharp, and his intelligence and genuine humanism are neatly on display.

And it's worth mentioning that the humour here is blacker than black, dark even for Vonnegut, but very funny. (less)

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Jul 13, 2012 Jorge rated it 5 of 5 stars

Un exoficial de propaganda nazi, nacido en EE. UU., está en una prisión de Israel a punto de ser juzgado por fomentar crímenes contra la humanidad. Encerrado en la prisión, se decide a escribir su historia, no sólo como un testimonio de lo que ocurrió en Alemania durante el nazismo, sino también como una visión ácida del patético afán humano por odiar.

Madre noche es una novela breve, escrita con el estilo irónico que tanto caracteriza a Vonnegut. Un estilo que calza a la perfección con un tema m...more Un exoficial de propaganda nazi, nacido en EE. UU., está en una prisión de Israel a punto de ser juzgado por fomentar crímenes contra la humanidad. Encerrado en la prisión, se decide a escribir su historia, no sólo como un testimonio de lo que ocurrió en Alemania durante el nazismo, sino también como una visión ácida del patético afán humano por odiar.

Madre noche es una novela breve, escrita con el estilo irónico que tanto caracteriza a Vonnegut. Un estilo que calza a la perfección con un tema muchas veces tratado con demasiada condescendencia y desde un único punto de vista: el de los judíos como víctimas de la brutalidad nazi. Aquí también hay muchos otros enfoques: el de los nazis norteamericanos, el de los judíos que quieren olvidar, el de los que claman la sangre de todo el que tuviera algo que ver con los nazis, el de los espías alemanes, soviéticos y estadounidenses, el de las hordas de fanáticos (tanto nazis como antinazis)...

La historia se configura entonces alrededor de la locura y el patetismo humano: no es una historia de víctimas y victimarios, es una historia sobre el mal y la permanente necesidad del ser humano de odiar para justificar su existencia.

Una de las gracias del relato, es que Vonnegut consigue que el lector empatice rápidamente con el protagonista, Howard W. Campbell Jr., dramaturgo y escritor que se enamora y se casa con Helga, una actriz e hija de un jefe de policía. Sus obras llaman la atención de las cúpulas del nazismo, quienes lo enrolan como jefe de propaganda radial y como locutor para las transmisiones enviadas a Estados Unidos e Inglaterra.

Sin embargo, Campbell no es un fanático descerebrado, sino un personaje trágico que se ve atrapado, por su propia voluntad, en lo que al principio parece un juego, pero pronto se convierte en una pesadilla. (view spoiler)

Si bien Campbell no fue un nazi convencido, de todas formas ayudó a la construcción de un ideario y un imaginario colectivo a través de sus mensajes de propaganda. Campbell considera que esos mensajes eran tan exagerados que deberían ser considerados una caricatura, una hipérbole del racismo y del odio. Eso es algo en lo que podrían coincidir muchos lectores, pero en el contexto de fascinación totalitaria que fue el nacional socialismo en Europa, las palabras de Campbell eran más leña en una hoguera de odios. Así, aunque el lector quiere considerar que Campbell es inocente, nos resulta imposible negar el daño que pueden causar las palabras, sin importar la intención del hablante.

La historia también gira en torno al amor de Campbell por su esposa, que desapareció en el frente este de la guerra mientras estaba de gira para animar a los soldados. Campbell consideraba a Helga el oasis de cordura que persistía en su mundo, y su desaparición le provoca un vacío imposible de llenar. Es la nostalgia por su vida con Helga lo que mantiene vivo a Campbell en su anónimo regreso a Estados Unidos.

En sus peripecias en Estados Unidos, Campbell se encontrará con espías soviéticos, sectas nazis, vengadores fanáticos y sobrevivientes cansados, pero sobre todo con una sociedad que aprovecha cualquier buena excusa para expresar su odio.

Cierro este comentario con la que es, a mi gusto, la mejor cita de la novela:

"¿Dónde está el mal? El mal es esa enorme porción de cada ser humano que quiere odiar sin límites, que quiere odiar con Dios de su lado... Es esa porción de cada hombre que encuentra tanto atractivo en toda clase de monstruosidades. Es esa porción del imbécil que castiga y envilece y hace la guerra con la alegría".(less)

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Mar 25, 2012 Lauren rated it 4 of 5 stars

Shelves: favorites, reviewed, made-me-laugh

I am continuing to work my way through everything Kurt Vonnegut has written, and five novels, a compilation, and several short stories in, there has yet to be anything I haven't loved. Mother Night is no exception, with that same perfect blend of satire and history, fate and foma and time and place and death and life that characterizes all of his work that I've loved before. This novel examines human duality—if an action has both a good and a bad result, and the results cannot be necessarily cha...more

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Mar 06, 2012 Josh rated it 4 of 5 stars

While exploring Philadelphia with my family, we stopped into a used bookstore across the street from Eastern State Penitentiary. There, I happened upon a great treasure trove of Vonnegut works - something most used bookstores, and some new bookstores are severely lacking. There was also a young male ocicat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocicat) there, with sharp claws, and a penchant for jumping, but not for landing.
Maybe I was all high on ocicat fumes, but even at $6-7.50/book (a crime for used...more While exploring Philadelphia with my family, we stopped into a used bookstore across the street from Eastern State Penitentiary. There, I happened upon a great treasure trove of Vonnegut works - something most used bookstores, and some new bookstores are severely lacking. There was also a young male ocicat (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ocicat) there, with sharp claws, and a penchant for jumping, but not for landing.
Maybe I was all high on ocicat fumes, but even at $6-7.50/book (a crime for used books, in my opinion. Especially "well-read" copies), I bought 6 books, 4 of them Vonneguts, including one I'd never heard of before (but we'll get to that later).
I hadn't been reading much lately, as you might've noticed, so "Mother Night" seemed a great place to get back into the swing of things.
And of course, it was.
And of course, a book written fifty years ago had more relevance than most written this month.
"Mother Night" is about an American spy in WWII in deepest cover, as a Nazi propagandist and radio personality, and specifically, the aftermath of all of that.
As always, there were about a thousand passages that I wanted to have framed, in needlepoint.
But the one that really grabbed me said about all that could ever be said about the state of the news media, and seemed especially poignant given Rush Limbaugh's most recent comments (I speak of Sandra Fluke, but if you're reading this in 2015, I'm sure just leaving it at "most recent" will do just fine):
"I had hoped, as a broadcaster, to be merely ludicrous, but this is a hard world to be ludicrous in, with so many human beings so reluctant to laugh, so incapable of thought, so eager to believe and snarl and hate. So many people wanted to believe me!
Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile."
If that's not a window into the true minds of Limbaugh, O'Reilly, Beck, and most of the rest (some of them, I do think are truly warped fascists and sociopaths... and I'm sure time has turned those three into that as well, but...), I don't know what is. I don't doubt that they started as our hero started: As people put in a situation, with either some honest belief in what they were saying, or a complete lack of belief in anything, and simply followed the crowds' reactions. The further they pushed the envelope, the more people listened. Just when they thought "ok, I'll say this, and that'll probably be the end of the line," the line of people's true capacity for bigotry, hate and intolerance got moved a little further ahead.
From what I've gathered, there's quite a bit more that can be said on that topic, so I'll pause here. I'll post some of the other quotes in the "Quotes" section of Goodreads, and will sign off for now.(less)

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Jan 30, 2012 Victor Hernández rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

The problem of identity is an old one in philosophy, and Vonnegut explores it here with outstanding mastery, while intertwining it with a slightly cynic reflection about WWII Nazi morality. To which degree are human beings defined by their thoughts and to which degree by their actions? If I die being a hero, but secretly hated those I saved, am I still a hero? If I die a villain, but secretly loved and worshiped the ones I killed, am I still a villain? What if I die full of doubts, who am I then...more

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