Here are some customer reviews of
Mother Night
: This book was awesome (not in the slang sense). The concept of one of America's being Germany's top Nazi stimulated my mind. The book tickled my imagination and made me realize just how happy I am to be me.
'Mother Night' is the story of Howard W. Campbell Jr. Nazi propagandist, racist, war criminal, and American spy. The story, told by Campbell from his prison cell in Israel, is of his success as a playwrite in Germany before the war, his recruitment by US intelligence, the devistation of the loss of his wife, the utter lonliness and apathy that plagued his life after the war, and the web of political intrigue that surrounds him before his trial. The style is similar to Vonnegut's other masterwork, 'Slaughterhosue Five,' in which Campbell also makes an appearence, and is told with the same wit and wonderful insight into the human soul. Truly a classic and a pleasure to read!
This book is particularly unique. I finished it and reread the introduction and then it became clear to me why this was unlike any Vonnegut book that I had ever read. It's subtitled "The Confessions of Howard W. Campbell Jr." And though Vonnegut often writes in the first person, he seems to have totally adopted the morals and opinions of his protagonist convincing the reader that he is merely the editor. I was actually convinced that his character was a real person to the extent that I attempted to research any existing records pertaining to him. This is a great love story and war epic that deserves to be ranked with the greatest works of Ameican fiction.
I thought this book was powerful. Perception is reality and you are what you pretend to be, as far as everyone else is concerned. There are important lessons in this book. This is not the usual comical Vonnegut. Of Vonneut's serious books I feel that this one's his best. "Galapagos" is probably my favorite Vonnegut book, all things considered.
Howard Campbell's "contributions" to World War II are put under a moral microscope that is unable to yield a verdict of good or bad. With a set of characters that epitomizes the term "black humor," Kurt Vonnegut examines the motives of the U.S. and German governments as well as the limits of the human conscience. Vonnegut creates darkly humorous characters, such as the Black Fuhrer, to surround Campbell in his struggle to reconcile his past and the consequences of his actions. I highly recommend this book to anyone who has been interested in the moral complications of the World War II ideologies of the western world. It is fascinating and disturbing and will make any reader study his/her own conscience.
|
