![mother night book mother night book](https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/mother_night_book_cover.jpg)
Sparrow, a.k.a.The thing I love best about Kurt Vonnegut is that he was both the ultimate cynic and the ultimate humanist. Philosophical Viewpoints: Philosophy of History & Historical Narratives.
#Mother night book free#
But at the last minute, Wirtanen breaks the rules and writes a letter clearing Campbell's name.Ĭampbell is a free man again. Campbell's goose seems to be nearly cooked, since only Wirtanen knows he was a spy, and that's supposed to remain a secret. He's also probably kind of sick of running all the time.Īnyway, the narrative swings back around, and we find ourselves once more thinking, along with Campbell, about the impending trial. Campbell does seem to feel guilty about what he's done. There's only one thing left for Campbell to do: turn himself in to Israel.
![mother night book mother night book](https://www.burnsiderarebooks.com/pictures/140938600_4.jpg)
Too bad he's drunk and unarmed: Campbell breaks his arm with fire-tongs, and that's the end of that. O'Hare doesn't know that Campbell was a spy he thinks Campbell was a total traitor, and he's ready to rumble for patriotism.
![mother night book mother night book](https://www.burnsiderarebooks.com/pictures/140938600.jpg)
He walks back to his apartment, where a guy named O'Hare is waiting for him. Kraft and the boys get arrested, Resi kills herself with a cyanide pill, and Campbell gets released (spy privileges). Campbell goes back to the basement bunker he's hiding in with Kraft, Resi, and a handful of Nazi sympathizers, even though Wirtanen has told him the building is about to get raided by the police. spy) tells him about Kraft and Resi's secret plans. There's just one problem: Resi is also a Soviet spy, and she and Kraft are trying to get Campbell to Moscow for their own political ends.Ĭampbell's Blue Fairy Godmother (that's Colonel Wirtanen, the dude who recruited Campbell as a U.S. Ew? Like, really? But then Campbell figures, Meh, good enough. She's her little sister Resi.Īt first Campbell is freaked out: he's been sleeping with his wife's little sister, who's just been pretending to be his wife. Campbell and Helga have a steamy night getting reacquainted.īut then there's a twist: Helga's not Helga. The leader of this newspaper reunites Campbell with his long-lost wife, Helga. But his BFF Kraft, who's really a Soviet spy, leaks his whereabouts to a white-supremacist newspaper.
![mother night book mother night book](https://i.etsystatic.com/9142375/r/il/15433f/1840796639/il_794xN.1840796639_6h3f.jpg)
And what is revealed is that everything has been a disappointment.įor disappointments one through infinity, read on.Ĭampbell thinks he can hide in New York City after the war.
#Mother night book series#
As Campbell remembers his life, he has a series of revelations about it. Basically, we get flashbacks, memories, and seemingly random segues to fill in the gaps for us. The bulk of the narrative jump, jump, jumps around. Basically, he's a big ham, and as a sleazy radio host in Nazi Germany, he gets to be "onstage." Nowadays, people just go on reality TV, but back then, you apparently had to turn to more desperate measures. See, Campbell was originally a playwright. It was great to be an actor on the big Nazi stage. On the flip side, he really enjoyed the creative parts of being a spy. It's complicated, because Campbell isn't exactly comfortable with what he's done, and he admits to having fanned some pretty nasty beliefs in the fiery minds of those ready to be hateful and violent-you know, like Nazis and their sympathizers. While in jail, Campbell occupies his time chatting with his guards and writing his memoirs. On the DL, he was delivering coded messages to the English-speaking world. This secret agent man says that he was hanging out in Germany only pretending to be a sleazy propagandist for the Third Reich. Well, if we take Campbell's word for it, he was a spy. The world thinks he's a Nazi, but he says nay. It's fifteen years since the end of WWII, and Campbell is hanging out in a jail cell in Israel awaiting trial.