After an egregiously long delay following its recommendation to me, I read Kurt Vonnegut's 'Mother Night'...I read slowly, savoring it as I went. It was a wonderful and well-written novel. Overall it alternates between being sad and being touching. That's not a bad thing, but I grew to like the main character, Howard Campbell, and it always saddens me a bit to finish a book when I like the characters. It saddens me further when the book doesn't have a happy ending.
But happy endings are overrated. There's something alluring about cold realism in art.
I read a gorgeous copy from the Kurt Vonnegut set from Easton Press that I have been working on this year. 'Mother Night' was recommended to me over twenty years ago by a friend who was very, very dear to me. We have since, sadly, lost touch. Now that I have finally read it, I can't help but wonder why it was recommended or what particularly resonated with her about it. I'll likely never know.
The book is about an American writer, Howard, who lived in Nazi Germany and worked as a propagandist and as an American spy. He was ultimately just trying to survive and have a fulfilling life, much like most people do, and got wrapped up in things over his head. It happens.
After the war, Howard ends up hiding in plain sight New York for a period of time. He is ultimately discovered, though, and has to flee his home. He ends up learning that a couple of his closest friends, one of which he was in love with, were betraying him and conspiring to turn him in to Russia. Their hideout gets raided and he loses one friend to prison and another to death. Howard, himself, is arrested but let go after a few days. He later turns himself in to be extradited to Israel from crimes against humanity. Very few people knew he had been also serving as a spy during the war, and so the focus was more on his public persona rather than him as a person. The book was written as an autobiography from Howard in an Israeli prison.
World War II was an extreme event that impacted millions of lives in millions of ways. That's the Captain Obvious statement for this blog posting. Other events have had comparably significant historical and social impact, as well. This is not the place to speculate about which was more impactful, but I must say that it also gives artistic media profound outlets for creating impactful works. Like 'Mother Night.'
'Mother Night' was a treat to read though I finished it with a heavy heart for more reasons than one. But I did love the book as I had expected to....it came highly recommended and I tend to love Kurt Vonnegut's voice and storytelling besides.