MOTHER NIGHT by Kurt Vonnegut


Originally published in 1962
Mother Night is one of Kurt Vonnegut's (1922-2007) early novels (his third) and the first that is not a work of science fiction. 

The book features Howard W. Campbell, a defendant awaiting trial in Israel for war crimes in Israel. He is wanted for being a well-known voice for the Nazis on broadcasts that he made during World War II. 

Campbell freely admits that he did what they say he did, but he does have a defense - he was working as a double agent for the Americans and was passing secret messages during those broadcasts. 

The book sets itself up to be a legal thriller - will the hero of the book be saved? Can he prove what he says is true?

But, there's none of that in this book. Campbell probably would have been the voice of the Nazis in the broadcasts no matter if he was recruited as a spy or not? He is just a self-absorbed author of plays that was way more concerned about bedding his German wife than politics or any "trivial" things like a World War or the mass murder of millions of people. 

Most of the book is about the last few months of Campbell's life and how he was found hiding in plain sight in New York City where he had been living in a tiny apartment. We get to meet a cast of freaks and creeps that loathe or worship Campbell for his part in the war while Vonnegut demonstrates that patriotism, duty, and racism/race loyalty are all illusory constructs at best. 

Self-portrait by the author
The book starts out with these themes by having Campbell introduce his prison guards. One of them is too young to really remember the war, one doesn't care and one worked in a death camp - he helped lead his fellow Jews to the gas chambers by telling them it was just a de-lousing. Then, he would help loot their bodies and bury them. He did this to save his own life - but he still gets to guard a man who literally didn't do anything to hurt anyone in the war except talk.

Vonnegut revels in pointing out that life is contradictory and complicated and no one is who they act like they are.

Good quotes:

"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be." 

"Say what you will about the sweet miracle of unquestioning faith, I consider a capacity for it terrifying and absolutely vile."

I rate this audiobook 5 stars out of 5. It can be found on Amazon.com here: MOTHER NIGHT by Kurt Vonnegut.

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