A blessedly short review, even by my standards. I don’t think I have a lot to say here.
I liked Vonnegut as a kid. I don’t think I have read one of his books in close to 20 years. What captivated me most then was Vonnegut’s style. It was unlike anything I had ever read before, and this gave much of his fiction a lot of staying power. It worked for Slaughterhouse-5, Jailbird, Cat’s Cradle, and his true standout work, God bless you Mr Rosewater.
So why didn’t it work here?
I don’t know. Something about the satirists style seemed to be at odds with what I understood to be going on in this story. I don’t think I can explain it much better than that. It is hard to say.
Mother Night follows the story of an American raised in Germany who ended up staying in Germany throughout the second world war, working as a playwright and doubling as a double agent spy, working for the American government while delivering pro-nazi radio propaganda to English speakers in the war.
The novel closes with the main character finding out that the evidence proving his innocence (IE, he was on the side of the Americans all along) has come in, but prefers to hang himself for his war crimes while awaiting his trail. I was never sure what side the MC was on, and I don’t think he did either. The ending was somewhat apropos, but didn’t fit the same style with which Billy Pilgrim became unstuck in time.
Yea, it is a bit hard to say.
Failures in Polymathy 