Rating: 
Summary: Are you the type?
Review: This early work is quite uncharacteristic for Kurt Vonnegut, far more conventional than almost any other Vonnegut novel. It's unfortunate and surprising that he didn't write like this more often, because this relatively obscure novel just might be the best Kurt Vonnegut ever wrote.
Unlike most of his work, it has no elements of SF or the fantastic: no aliens, no synopses of novels by Kilgore Trout,no silly drawings thrown in for the hell of it, and no narration from a ghost as in Galapagos, although the narrator is about as near a ghost as a living man can be.
What it lacks in these areas is more than compensated by characters, often an afterthought in Vonnegut, but in this story rich and fully realized.
Howard Campbell is a marginally successful American playwright who became to the world world a notorious and legendary Nazi propagandist while secretly being an agent of the OSS (the predecessor of the CIA) whose broadcasts were filled with vital intelligence eagerly decrypted by American agents. After the war, Campbell was secretly repatriated to the US, but, for reasons that are never made clear, the truth was never revealed, so when Campbell's life of obscure retirement is interrupted by the exposure of his identity, he is treated as a traitor by most while being hailed as a hero by a small group of crackpot Nazi sympathizers.
Ultimately, he is abducted by Israeli agents and put on trial as a war criminal. The novel is presented as his memoirs written from an Israeli prison cell; memoirs which focus on his life as a spy and the loss of the great love of his life, an actress named Helga who was killed on the German equivalent of a USO tour.
The question at the book's heart is whether a mask, presented to the world long enough, becomes a reality rather than a mask. Campbell is told by a friend that, even if he were a spy, his broadcasts couldn't possibly have been more valuable as intelligence than they were as propaganda that kept German spirits up. Vonnegut himself seems to answer the question, saying in a brief foreword that the moral is, "You are what you pretend to be, so be careful what you pretend to be." But is that what the novel really says? Campbell perhaps has ultimately done more evil than good, but he is not an evil man. At one point he meets a character who is willing, even eager, to pretend to be something she is not; Campbell is unwilling to accept the imposture.
Some amusing comic relief is provided by the neo-Nazis Campbell finds himself unwillingly thrown in with, who are treated as more ridiculous than sinister.
Rating: 
Summary: a probing tale
Review: "Mother Night" by Kurt Vonnegut is a probing tale (a parable perhaps) about the difference between appearances and reality. "Mother Night" is actually one of three books I have recently read (or reread) that deal with the dichotomy between appearance and truth. "Mother Night" is clearly the least subtle book as far as advancing an argument...yet it is far and away the most powerful. Vonnegut navigates this ethical minefield in an entertaining, yet sobering manner. "Mother Night" tells the story of an American playwright who is enlisted to be a spy within World War II Germany. The playwright becomes part of the upper crust of Nazi society. Working as a talk-radio personality, he encodes top secret information in his pro-Nazi broadcasts. In so doing, he helps to bring about the eventual victory of the Allies. The war-time story-line of "Mother Night" is told in retrospect by the playwright who is living a secluded life in 1960's New York City. The reason he must live in hiding is that his Allied contact person during the war disappeared. He has no one left to testify to the fact that he worked for the Allies. The story takes off in grand Vonnegutian style as the "protagonist" of the story is discovered simultaneously by Nazi-hunters, Soviet agents, white supremacists, and a woman claiming to be his ex wife. Through it all, Vonnegut asks hard questions about what action, motivation, intent, and reality have to do with reality. I found this book to be eye-opening. It is engagingly told; containing passages of great beauty, sorrow, and even humor. I recommend this book.
Rating:
Summary: First Rate!
Review: "Mother Night" is one of Vonnegut's most complex and intellectually stimulating novels. It is the story of Howard W. Campbell Jr., Nazi propagandist and secret agent for the United States. His high profile work for the Nazis was meant to provide him with an opportunity to safely broadcast secret information to awaiting American agents, but he was so good at his job that at the same time he was working against the Nazis he was strengthening their popularity. When Hitler fell to the Allies, he was arrested as a war criminal and now faces trial for his actions, having been disavowed by the US government.
As with all of Vonnegut's work, the narrative style of "Mother Night" can be best described as disjointed. There is no continuity of time or space, the reader flies through Campbell's stream of consciousness at a breakneck pace, always in suspense of the next destination. Much like the work of William Faulkner, this format allows the author to fully explore the ambiguous motivations of his protagonist without the restrictiveness of a linear plot. We are shown the highest and lowest points of Campbell's life, his great artistic achievements as well as his ever increasing lust and greed.
While the subject matter is heavy, the story keeps the sharp but shadowy wit of it's author. Much like "Slaughterhouse Five", the novel uses humor to ease the bitter medicine of war and self-realization. The more palpable the shell, the more jarring it's contents can be. As Mark Twain before him, he operates with sweet words that slice like razors into the reader's consciousness.
The story is a darkly humorous morality play, an apparent attempt to analyze the difference between intentions and actions. Vonnegut refuses to pass judgement on Campbell but instead provides an almost scientific dissection of his life, leading from before the war to his last days in prison. In the end, the reader is left to make his own assessment of Campbell's life, a choice that demands a careful consideration of one's own beliefs. In the end that it Vonnegut's deeper purpose, to confront the morality not of the characters in his book but of his readers. Pick up a copy! Another book I need to recommend -- completely unrelated to Vonnegut, but very much on my mind since I purchased it off Amazon is "The Losers' Club" by Richard Perez, an exceptional, highly entertaining little novel I can't stop thinking about.
Rating:
Summary: The Best of Vonnegut
Review: Authors have long had a great flaw in portraing good and evil in humans. The characters portrayed in art almost always seem to be either good or evil. Vonnegut, one of the best observers of human nature manages in this book to portray we humans as we really are, a composite of many things.
Our hero, Howard, is a American spy in Germany during WWII. A profession that would be the most nobel and great characters in anything but a Vonnegut work. Here he faces a delema, his cover is that of a Nazi propagandist. He is in fact the finist most convincing Nazi propagandist. The question is which side did he help more.
On the other side of the coin is a absurdly insane American Nazi dentist/embalmer. Yet oddly enough this character has gaps his his racist record. He never writes his insane essays about the inferior teeth of jews and blacks while he's married and loved.
There is an American war hero turned alcoholic who's drivin to take what little joy in Howards life away from him.
A Jew who survives Hitler by forging papers and joining the SS.
A camp survivor who wishes nothing more then forget the whole bloody thing and get on with his life and his mother who gains wisdom through her suffering.
Vonnegut turns the world inside out in what I consider the best literary treatment of human morality ever written
Rating:
Summary: "Um," I said.
Review: Here is the fictional autobiography of Howard W. Campbell, Jr., as given by the awesome Vonnegut.
Without giving away key plot points, I'll recommend this book right off the bat. Here is Vonnegut, yes if you can believe it, decrying the state of humanity, witfully and ironically too. There is a given moral sense to Mother Night, which Vonnegut states in the Introduction: "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful what we pretend to be."
And Mother Night is a story of how Howard W. Campbell, Jr. and his associates must and do and will deal with said moral.
Mother Night is quite moving, in the way that so much Vonnegut is; in that here is a hero or anti-hero, a lead if you will, who is shaped rather than shapes his or her time. And how that shaping baffles, sparkles, crushes, devoures, stimulates and paralyzes.
Given an opportunity to be someone else, and taken to the fullest, for a good cause (or not), where are you then? You only have yourself....in the end....to blame....
Again, highly recommended.
Rating:
Summary: One of Vonneguts better
Review: I just finished re-reading this book, and it was even better the second time around. This book is mostly about plot and morales, and less about charcters, although our main charcter is quite interesting. Jaded by the war, he has nothing to do with the rest of his life but hide. I dont want to give away any plot points, but the moral of the story is clear and brilliant "We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be" But towards the end of the book, as Campbell is giving to the man who hate him, he says "Where's evil? Its the large part of very man that wants to hate without limit, that wants to hate with God on its side". Thats why i read Vonnegut.
Rating:
Summary: "Vonnegut: You can't read just one!"
Review: I've been on a Vonnegut binge as of late, reading a novel a week in what has become a sort of obsession. Mother Night is by far his most compasionate novel. It's a bittersweet tale of a misunderstood American Nazi Propagandist spy (working for the U.S., only nobody can know this) named Howard W. Campbell (Jr.) After the war, he is forced to live in solitude in any place he wishes. He chooses New York City, where his hopes of being lost in the crowd go unfulfilled. He lives the rest of his days in peace and solitude. That is untill he gets a knock on the door from some old war buddies. Now, one would imagine that living with the pain and anguish of causing millions of deaths would get to a person after a while. Only this is not the case for Howard W. Campbell (Jr.). He seeks solace in a love lost. In some of the most heartbreaking scenes ever written on a piece of dead tree. Mother Night is a must read for anyone looking for insight into the human condition (as are all Vonnegut novels!). Pick up Mother Night, and prepare to become a die hard Vonnegut fan all over again.
Rating:
Summary: A very important book
Review: This deserves to be a modern classic, right up there with Slaughterhouse Five, The Naked and the Dead, Catch-22 and 1984. It is a disturbing and relentlessly insightful book about the human condition. A man agrees to act as a Nazi propagandist during WWII in order to be able to transmit coded messages to the Allies. But when we look beyond the good intentions, there is still the question of which side he aids most - the side he proclaims to profess to, or the side he secretly tries to aid? As mr Vonnegut writes himself in the introduction: "We are what we pretend to be, and therefore we must be very carful of what we pretend to be." Read it - don't see the film.
Rating:
Summary: excellent
Review: This is one of my favorite Vonnegut novels. The overall story is somewhat sad, frustrating, and depressing, but, Vonnegut still somehow finds ways to insert humor, beauty, etc....so that ultimately, Mother Night in no way bogs down the reader, or puts you in a sour mood. I'm amazed at how Vonnegut can, at times, find gems of beauty in ugly situations. His unique description of the dream-like stairway to a roofless night sky in a ravaged, war-torn land stands out in my mind vividly to this day.
Excellent writing throughout... highly recommended reading.
Rating:
Summary: Not Vonnegut's best, but a wonderful novel nonetheless
Review: This is the sixth novel that I have read by Kurt Vonnegut, and like I expected, it did not fall short of the high expectations that I have had for all of his works.
Howard Campbell is an American agent in Nazi Germany during World War II, and he has been assigned the job of being a propagandist on the radio and getting to know the people behind the Nazi government. Supposedly, he's sending secret codes to the U.S. military over the airwaves, although he is unaware what exactly he is sending.
After the war he is protected by the U.S. government from trial despite the fact that he became very infamous during the war for his hate speech and propaganda. He isolates himself for several years in New York, where he is discovered by a Russian agent in disguise, who in turn tells the Israeli government about Campbell living in New York. The rest of the book is basically about Campbell dealing with this threat and the lessons he learns about putting on a mask and being someone that you are not.
"We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be."
In my opinion, this is not Vonnegut's best novel (Sirens of Titans is), and neither is it his worst (the worst that I have read so far is Breakfast of Champions). What makes the other novels a tad bit better are the messages given in them; I wish the theme in this book was a little stronger. However, it was a very enjoyable read and I highly recommend it.
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