Mother Night

Book #9 on my '06 reading list was Kurt Vonnegut's 1961 novel Mother Night.

Mother Night is the story of Howard W. Campbell Jr., a fictional Nazi propaganda radio host living in exile in New York City roughly 25 years after the war. Campbell serves as the narrarator of the story, retelling his travails as he awaits trial as a war criminal. As the story unfolds we find that Campbell, one of the most hated vitrolic Nazi sympathizers was actually serving as a double agent, using his radio show to relay secret communications back to the American government. After the war the U.S. refuses to confirm or deny Campbell's status as a spy, leaving him out to dry.

As the protagonist of the story Campbell presents an interesting duality. On the one hand he could be considered a hero for his efforts in helping the U.S. win the war, but on the other hand how can a man who lived as a Nazi and inspired so much hatred be a hero? This is the question that Vonnegut leaves the reader and Campbell to ponder as he awaits his fate.

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this one, although it's quite different from the other works I've read by Vonnegut. Although there is still the typical Vonnegut wit dashed throughout, the tone of the book is a little sadder/heavier. In a lot of ways I'd say it's a more mature work than his other novels, though often the beauty of Vonnegut is his ability to be a little immature and come at things from a different angle than we're used to seeing.

It seems like everything I've been reading lately has been adapted into a movie, and it turns out that this one's no exception. The 1996 version of the film stars Nick Nolte and a pre-teen Kirsten Dunst.

For a more in depth description of Mother Night I'd recommend checking out this Wikipedia article.