Cheap Mother Night (Book) (Kurt Vonnegut) Price

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Customer Reviews of Mother Night

Inside-Out or Outside-In
Mother Night is the story of an accidental American spy in Germany who, as part of his cover, wrote inflammatory Nazi propaganda and read it over the radio during World War II. The narrative takes the form of a memoir, written from prison while the author awaits trial as a war criminal. The moral, as conveniently provided by the author in the preface, is this: You are who you pretend to be, so be careful who you pretend to be. Essentially, then, Mother Night is an exploration of what happened to one man who served evil too openly and good too secretly. <
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>I'm a huge Vonnegut fan, and I probably should have given it five stars since it's better than most of the books out there. I gave it four stars only because at a couple of points I felt like, for a page or two, the dialogue slipped out of the story and began to moralize more explicitly than I'm used to from Vonnegut. Otherwise, I thought the book was perfect: profound, disturbing, sad, and good enough to make me want to scrutinize the differences between my own inner and outer lives. Probably a must read for Vonnegut fans and a great introduction for the unconverted, especially for those who like to save the very best for last.

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Ironic Evil
Many actors who create public personas blur the lines between their public and private faces. In other words, they become the character they created no matter how contrary to his creator the character may have originally been. Archie Leach became Cary Grant over time just as Marion Morrison became John Wayne after decades of movies. Our hero, Howard Campbell is no different. Instead of standing up to the rascists and antisemites, he meekly submits to their assumptions about him. Purhaps they're more correct than they know. True evil comes not from some insane meglomaniac trapped in his own delusions but from good people who do nothing. Who shut themselves off to survive. To make a buck. To stay out of trouble. A clear mind and clear heart do not a clear conscience make. The little dutiful cogs that make a big machine that chews the world to bits. Goodness comes not from not being bad but in being good on purpose. He was only doing his job but did he have to do it so well? Why couldn't he have been a barely adequate Nazi propagandist/ Allied spy? Just good enough not to be replaced but not good enough to inspire hatred in millions. If only he had cared.

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Great!
The book came in after just a few days and it was in great condition.