MOTHER NIGHT by Kurt Vonnegut (fiction)

I wouldn’t dare to review a book by the great Kurt Vonnegut, but if you are a Vonnegut fan and have not read this book (his third novel), you should give it a try.  It is different than his other books.  Or maybe I shouldn’t say that, as each of Vonnegut’s books are highly imaginative and individual, though each deals with a moral conundrum.

The story opens with an introduction by the author who states that he has been asked to edit the memoir of one, Howard Campbell, Jr. (this, of course, is also part of the fiction).  Vonnegut says in the introduction, “This is the only story of mine whose moral I know.  We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.”

We meet Howard Campbell as he awaits trial as a war criminal, in prison in Jerusalem. He is guarded by an 18 year old with whom he has struck up a friendship, and thus we gradually learn his story.  Campbell is an unassuming fellow, a playwright living in Germany, married to an actress, Helga, whom he adores.  Helga is the daughter of the Berlin Chief of Police.  The U.S. Secret Service, the OSS, decides that Campbell, because of his connections, is the perfect person to pass on information to them.  After he is recruited, he begins working with Nazi radio, broadcasting propaganda, moving in high German political circles, and passing on information to the Americans, most that he isn’t privy to.  As the Allied and Russian troops push into Berlin, Campbell’s wife disappears and is presumed dead.

We next meet Campbell 15 years later, living in Greenwich Village.  He leads a quiet, non-political life.  His chief friend is an artist living in the same building, who we later learn is working for the KGB.  It seems that both the Russians and the Israelis are interested in finding him.  Campbell seems to be a naif in the midst of a slapstick operation to capture him.  The operation is mixed in with a kooky group of American Nazis, called the Iron Guards, who regard Campbell as a great hero, and arrive on the scene ready to lionize him. The characters in this group are satirically hysterical.

Meanwhile, Campbell can’t seem to make contact with the officer who recruited him, and he is suffering from the weight of the responsibly for sending Jews to their death through his propaganda. What good is the information he helped the Americans with, if evil was caused by his actions?  This is his moral conundrum.  He makes the decision to surrender to the Israelis. The absurdity of his situation haunts him as he languishes in jail, baring his soul to his young jailer.

I read somewhere that this book was only issued in paperback, and turned out quickly as Vonnegut needed money for his growing family.  I think the book is a gem, and even these many years later, is filled with food for thought.