Mother Night
First published 1961 · English · 268 pages
- Novels
- Historical fiction
- War
- Science fiction
Presented as the confessions of Howard W. Campbell Jr., an American who became a well-known Nazi radio propagandist in the Second World War, the novel is written while he awaits trial in Israel. Campbell claims he was also an American spy, sending secret messages hidden in his broadcasts, but no one can easily prove it. Vonnegut uses his story to explore guilt, role-playing and the danger of pretending to be something one is not. It is a dark, thoughtful book, and its famous moral is that we are what we pretend to be.
Quotes
We are what we pretend to be, so we must be careful about what we pretend to be.
If I'd been born in Germany, I suppose I would have been a Nazi, bopping Jews and gypsies and Poles around, leaving boots sticking out of snowbanks, warming myself with my secretly virtuous insides. So it goes.
Make love when you can. It's good for you.
Here lies Howard Campbell's essence,Freed from his body's noisome nuisance.His body, empty, prowls the earth,Earning what a body's worth.If his body and his essence remain apart,Burn his body, but spare this, his heart.