For those couple of years or so I had become so enamored with Kurt Vonnegut, how this book escaped my notice I do not know. The specific role of Campbell in WWII along with his impersonal attitude toward his circumstance I believe was a driving force for Vonnegut to explore the concepts and purpose of Mother Night. Ones which it is hard for me to think of alternative scenarios that make them accessible in the first place, and with luck it is Vonnegut who discovered how.

Of those concepts, the one most striking to me is the "schizophrenia" described by the book. As a spy he must take on the role of several people at once, naturally. Campbell was simultaneously an American spy, in turn becoming a leading Nazi propagandist, and the person he truly believes himself to be. The consequence of success is the distortion of your true self the more you become enmeshed. The "schizophrenia" becomes inevitable, and real or imagined you'll always have a bit of those different selves within you.

Maybe I could have worded that better or maybe I've misunderstood altogether. There are other things that intrigued, but in the end I now think I kinda misjudged how much I really wanted to delve into this review. Just know it is one of a kind. The perspective it is told from allows the reader to navigate the war in a certain way not easily found elsewhere. Besides, with it being told by Vonnegut why look elsewhere in the first place?

I enjoyed it enough to feel compelled to write something, perhaps I shouldn't have. I'm tired, alright? All I can say I wish this shared the same acclaim prescribed to Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle, just read it alright.