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4.23 AVERAGE
4.23 AVERAGE
adventurous
dark
funny
mysterious
reflective
tense
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
adventurous
challenging
dark
funny
mysterious
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
emotional
funny
sad
tense
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
Complicated
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
Mother Night is about Howard W. Campbell Junior, an American-born playwrite and naturalised German. He worked for the Nazi Party and wrote and produced an exceptional amount of devastatingly-effective propaganda for broadcast to the English-speaking world. To the Americans, he was the voice of the Nazis. He recounts his story from an Israeli jail where he is being tried for crimes against humanity. His defence is that he was in fact an American agent, recruited in the late 1930s and broadcasting coded information through his choices of phrase and mannerisms. His problem since the war is that he served the Nazis too well and too publicly, and his secret work remains secret. Wallowing in grief over the loss of his wife, he lives in isolation in New York in anonymity until an American neo-Nazi and hate preacher learns of his whereabouts and proudly makes it known to the world. From here he is thrust into a world of neo-Nazis, communist betrayals and visits from the long-lost dead.
While all of this sounds tremendously interesting, I never got into this book. I offer no criticism, other than that I found it somehow boring, and I don’t know why. I certainly wasn’t expecting another colossus from Vonnegut such as Slaughterhouse Five, but I did expect some of his spark to have reached this book. Instead, I found this completely without emotion or interest. It may be that this detached style is a signifier of Vonnegut’s writing, and that it works better with some books than others. Like I say, I have no criticism to offer.
While all of this sounds tremendously interesting, I never got into this book. I offer no criticism, other than that I found it somehow boring, and I don’t know why. I certainly wasn’t expecting another colossus from Vonnegut such as Slaughterhouse Five, but I did expect some of his spark to have reached this book. Instead, I found this completely without emotion or interest. It may be that this detached style is a signifier of Vonnegut’s writing, and that it works better with some books than others. Like I say, I have no criticism to offer.
dark
reflective
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Yes
Loveable characters:
No
adventurous
dark
funny
reflective
medium-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
Complicated
Loveable characters:
No
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes
I love Vonnegut. I've never encountered another writer who can access such gravity by way of such brevity. He never gives in to mania or hysterics; you never get the tear-soaked drama. He just fills you up with the heaviness of the situation little by little until you find yourself sinking to the bottom. It's like he never has to actually punch you. He just winds up a swing and then you're on the ground, feeling the force of something that never hit you directly. Then you have to carry the bruise.
He states in the beginning that the moral of this story is to be careful of what you pretend to be. Such a wise man.
He states in the beginning that the moral of this story is to be careful of what you pretend to be. Such a wise man.
dark
funny
reflective
dark
emotional
funny
reflective
sad
fast-paced
Plot or Character Driven:
Character
Strong character development:
No
Loveable characters:
Yes
Diverse cast of characters:
No
Flaws of characters a main focus:
Yes