Kurt Vonnegut Gets a Rave for Mother Night

I re-visited Mother Night after a 30 plus year separation. I could not appreciate the words he so carefully laid before me at the time. I had not aged enough or seen enough of the world to really grasp the depth he was crafting in those few pages. In those days I never read the preface, never glanced at the introductions and never batted an eye towards any acknowledgements be they further than the opeing pages of 'This book is dedicated to...'. I truly wish I had read them as I do now. Perhaps working for the Library has opened my eyes to allow my mind to see the meanings in these beginnings.

Kurt opens Mother Night with his account of being a prisoner of war during World War II. I had always had a feeling of the affect the war had had upon him as he visited the topic several times. But I never, sadly I admit, had enough curiosity to explore the reasons why. This is something I now regret and I am ashamed to admit. To have read as much as I have and not know who is behind the words other than their name and a few simple facts.

It is with this admission that I begin this rave, this review if it may be called by that term, of Mother Night. Kurt was an expert on the human condition. He manages to engage the reader on every page, every sentence and every well placed word in Mother Night bringing the enormous range of the human existance in clear view. Disgusting, vile, dirty, loathesome, vanity, hatred, compassion, fear, peace and loving are words that can describe Howard W. Campbell, Jr. Traits that are found in many of us at some point in our small lives.

Writing about World War II from the point of view of Howard W. Campbell, Jr., leads the reader into believing the story is true. After all we are told the story many times in history and in other mediums. Yes it is in the cover pages that all accounts and characters are fictious, but I found it very clever to begin the intro as the editor of a manuscript and giving us an account of how it came about. This lends some credibilty to the narative which I for one enjoyed as a reader. It is not an easy task to wrtie about nor easy to read the accounts of the genocide of Nazi Germany. Kurt holds back only the gruesome details leaving the reader their own memories of what they had learned whether it was in school, from books and other media or first hand accounts of those who survived. I cannot in good faith praise the actions of history but I do praise Kurt's skill at triggering my own memories both good and bad.

Our character Howard has been seemingly incoculated to the genocide around him. He knows what is going on but lives as if nothing is going on. How can that be we ask? If one thinks about the question long enough, we will arrive at the answer. We are living it just as he did in the story. Genocide is nothing new to the world but the world had not seen anything of this magnatude in what we know as modern day. But history shows us many examples of entire races wiped away from the Earth as if a bothersome fly. By no means am I condoning or trying to make light of this time in history, but more to be a messenger that genocides have been a part of the workd long before Hitler and remain so today. The very nation I call my own very nearly wiped a race of people form the sight of the Earth simply because they were not considered people. Savages, loathesome savages were what the American Indians were called and many were slaughtered. I bring this up only because it happened on the very soil where we are supposed to believe all men are created equal. Think about that for a moment and then join with me in praising Kurt Vonnegut to have the courage and skill to write about the events of World War II.

Kurt has led Howard through the war and into freedom. A freedom without feeling. A solitary confinement of peace. And as such, this peace is rewarded, as in real life, real war, the peace is broken bits, fragments of ourselves. We are exposed for forever who we truly are. Inside these pages are everything humans have longed for, fought over and died for, as does Howard W. Campbell, Jr..

If you read to discover then this is a book for you. I am glad to have returned to Mother Night after all these years and I promise not to skip the preface and inroductions ever again. In the preface for Mother Night I finally have come to realize the profound impact World War II had upon Kurt's life.

Thank you for taking the time to read my thoughts on Mother Night. Please share yours too in the comments.