“Ever since I first read 'night, Mother it has filled me with the kind of exaltation I experience only in the presence of a major dramatic work.” - Robert Brustein, The New Republic Humor and pathos pop up as naturally as wild flowers or fences by the roadside there is devastating psychological accuracy and nothing seems contrived and there is that bustle of minutely perceived existential details that bespeak the master.” - John Simon, New York Debs) and a lifelong supporter of the American Civil Liberties Union.“The subjects are suicide, love, and the meaning of life-as huge as they come but they are treated with the specificity of threading a needle or choosing the right breakfast for your needs. His experiences as an advance scout in the Battle of the Bulge, and in particular his witnessing of the bombing of Dresden, Germany whilst a prisoner of war, would inform much of his work.Vonnegut was a self-proclaimed humanist and socialist (influenced by the style of Indiana’s own Eugene V. He attributed his writing style to his reporting work. He left Chicago to work in Schenectady, New York in public relations for General Electric. Army and serving in WW II.Īfter the war, he attended University of Chicago as a graduate student in anthropology and also worked as a police reporter at the City News Bureau of Chicago. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked as a journalist before joining the U.S. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student paper, the Cornell Daily Sun. He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He was recognized as New York State Author for 2001-2003. Kurt Vonnegut, Junior was an American novelist, satirist, and most recently, graphic artist. Virtues and vices, pleasures and pains cross boundaries at will.”
I can’t believe that they mark the end or the beginning of anything of real concern to a human soul. Those imaginary lines are as unreal to me as elves and pixies. It’s no doubt a great flaw in my personality, but I can’t think in terms of boundaries. ‘It’s impossible for me to get emotional about it, because real estate doesn’t interest me. That would be as silly as loving it,’ I said. Are we who we think we are or are we really who everyone believes us to be? What do we do if we can’t change the outside perception of ourselves? Is it better to fight for who we really are or go along with the outside image? Vonnegut examines these queestions and more in Mother Nightand it wouldn’t be a Kurt Vonnegut book if there weren’t some twists and turns along the way. What better character for him to create to embody those views than a Nazi with good intentions? This entire book centers around the concept of personal identity. This might be my favorite of them all.īut the thing I love best about Kurt Vonnegut is that he was both the ultimate cynic and the ultimate humanist.
He constantly challenges American “norms” and forces us to ask the question “why.” Everyone knows him as the author of Slaughterhouse 5 but few read other books of his. The more I learn about Kurt Vonnegut the more I can’t get enough of him. But is he really guilty? In this brilliant book rife with true gallows humor, Vonnegut turns black and white into a chilling shade of gray with a verdict that will haunt us all.
MOTHER NIGHT BOOK TRIAL
Campbell, Jr., a spy during World War II, is now on trial in Israel as a Nazi war criminal. Mother Night is a daring challenge to our moral sense. “We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.” -KV
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