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: A witty and satirical book.
Review: This book is about a man named George W. Campbell, Jr. who is an American by birth and German by heart. He is telling his story from a jail cell in Russia. Campbell tells of his life before moving to Germany, the great love between him and his wife, Helga, his experience of neing a spy for the United States in World War II as a radio broadcaster, and how he was hunted afterwards for being accused of being a traitor to humanity. There are many strange events that take place that will either make you think or giggle. In the end, Campbell's love for his Helga is his only inspiration to go on. I think this book will provide much humor to you as does many of Vonnegut's works do. It also mentions many incidences and ideas that happened in World War II. I recommend this book, especially to readers who enjoy historical fiction.
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: Pick this one up!
Review: I am new to Kurt Vonnegut's work. This is my first impression of his writing. I have to say that I really enjoyed the almost frantic, frenzied way this book was written. Short Chapters that move as quickly as the plot does. As I read, I felt as though I was privy to a secret that no one knew. As if the main character was confiding in me his life story. This drew me in closer, making it seem as though I was part of the story. But I think the most remarkable aspect of the book is the ending. You know that something big is going to happen. With each page that passed by it became more evident that the ending was going out with a bang. And even when it did, I was amazed at the way it happened. It took until the last page before I knew how it ended and then it was over. Just as quickly as it was revealed, the book ended. A book that leaves you asking your own kind of questions is one that has tattooed itself in your mind. I don't see how anyone could read this and walk away without a head full of new thoughts! It was refreshingly different, insightful and let my curiousity run wild. Pick this one up!
Rating:
Summary: Intense
Review: This is an excellently written book by Vonnegut. These memoirs of a Nazi propagandist will force you to question the way you live your life. Are we who we pretend to be? Could doing evil thing for a good cause possibly make you an evil person? Is there anyting worth living for other than love. If these questions interest you, please read this book. The themes of this book will make you think.
Rating:
Summary: Vonnegut had rarely done better
Review: Howard Campell, Jr., is an american spy in Nazi Germany. To hide this fact he takes the job of broadcasting english-language nazi propaganda to american troops as "the last free american" (and uses coughs and hiccups in the antisemitic rants he broadcasts as a way to transmit secret info to american intelligence services.) The result? The most important american spy of the war is universally despised as a traitor and lives his life hiding from vengence-seeking victims of the Nazis... from soviet spies who want to prove the US "harbors nazis"... and even worse, from neo-nazi nutcases who want to crown him as a new Fuehrer. Who will catch him first? And then what? Hunted by all the wrong people for all the wrong reasons, condemned as evil for doing the right thing, Howard Campell, Jr., is in an excellent situation to reflect on the absurdity and irony of life, and on how much evil is done by those who think they are doing good. Dark, disturbing, and at the same time extremely funny, Vonnegut had rarely done better.
Rating:
Summary: An excellent, but not as popular, Vonnegut novel.
Review: This is one of Vonnegut's early novels, and I really enjoyed it. The story is a fascinating one: an American living in Germany is recruited by the United States to work for the Nazis during WWII and unknowningly assists the Allies with his pro-Nazi radio broadcasts. After the war he is abandoned by the United States out of embarrassment, and is captured by the newly formed nation of Israel and put on trial for his "war crimes." It's an incredible story about identity and being responsible for one's actions. I would confidently say this is one of Vonnegut's best.
Rating:
Summary: An absolutely incredible book
Review: I don't see much point in describing the plot, because no plot summary can give you any adequate idea of what this amazingly powerful book is really all about. But then it's also hard to describe what it's all about, except to say that it encompasses themes of good and evil, responsibility and innocence, remorse and redemption, and the all-important question of whether our intentions can truly justify our actions. It's difficult for me to describe the effect this book had on me--perhaps I can convey some idea of its impact by saying that I frequently found myself raising my head from its pages with the words "oh, _man_" upon my lips and subsequently staring into space for several minutes while allowing the sentence I had just read to work its way through my system. At times I felt as though I'd been kicked in the gut...but it was well worth it. Few books I've read have been as profound or as thought-provoking. Don't expect it to make you happy--but expect it to make you think very seriously about the human condition and about the actions that even the best of us benighted beings are capable of.
Rating:
Summary: You are what you pretend to be
Review: I generally get around to reading this book once a year. I also tend to buy it once a year as I seem to hand it out like a Jehovas Witness with a copy of WatchTower.All in all, it's not the biggest waste of my money. This is perhaps the finest literature penned in English. Read it. You will laugh when you really think you should be crying.
Rating:
Summary: Howard W. Cambell Jr.'s story
Review: This is the second book I've read by Vonnegut(after the exceptional Cat's Cradle) and Vonnegut proves his superior ability to create complicated characters. After finishing the book, I still have no Idea if Cambell was a real person or not. (I don't think so, but the author made him feel like a real person.) My only complaint is that the plot was never clearly defined and it constantly shifted in time. But other than slight lack of focus(which works in a way since it is the last written words of a probably soon to be convicted war criminal possibly about to be hanged, making the story all the more realistic.) Overall this was a great book with all issues such as morality and responsibility. In fact, I loved the idea that a man working as a spy could serve the side he is spying on far more than he could ever serve the ones he is spying for... all unintentionally. Vonnegut loads the story with humorous ironies also.
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