God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
First published 1965 · English · 288 pages
- Novels
- Science fiction
- Satire and humour
Eliot Rosewater, heir to an enormous fortune, rejects the comfortable life expected of him and moves to a small Indiana town. There he sets up an office offering money, kindness and a listening ear to anyone who asks, however odd or unworthy they may seem. His behavior alarms his family, and a scheming lawyer sees a chance to take advantage. This warm and funny novel examines wealth, inequality and charity, asking what people owe one another when there is no good reason to be generous.
Quotes
We few, we happy few, we band of brothers — joined in the serious business of keeping our food, shelter, clothing and loved ones from combining with oxygen.
Like all real heroes, Charley had a fatal flaw. He refused to believe that he had gonorrhea, whereas the truth was that he did.
A sum of money is a leading character in this tale about people, just as a sum of honey might properly be a leading character in a tale about bees.
He alienated his friends in the sciences by thanking them extravagantly for scientific advances he had read about in the recent newspapers and magazines, by assuring them, with a perfectly straight face, that life was getting better and better, thanks to scientific thinking.