Mothers Night

I'd just finished re-re-reading Mother Night (in my Complete Vonnegut in Chronological Order Quest) and was feeling a bit of a let-down. My memory of the book (based upon my two previous readings) was that it was a very good novel, possibly the best-written of Vonnegut's early works. This time around--immediately after re-re-reading Player Piano and The Sirens of Titan--I was really disappointed and felt that it was by far the weakest of Vonnegut's books. Which is still  solidly in the well worth reading category, of course--it's a relativity issue. But the heart of the novel was cleft in twain for me, and I had to throw away the bitter part. Which didn't leave much in the way of a novel. The character of Howard W. Campbell, Jr., was just too flimsy. And you really can't afford to have a flimsy character at the center of a novel. And a first person narrated novel at that.

In said novel, Howard W. Campbell, Jr., seemed to vacillate between being a serious character--a man torn between his public image as a Nazi propagandist and his interior self as a good man who wants to serve the Allied cause, be a hero, all of that--and the voice of Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. himself. And I do most certainly love the latter. In fact, the main reason that I love Kurt Vonnegut is because of his authorial voice, not because of his plots or characters or whatevers. But his voice and a serious character's voice just do not mix. 

So the novel disappointed me this time out, and I don't intend to ever read it again.

I was ready to move on to Canary in a Cathouse--the fourth book in the Vonnegut oeuvre--when I decided that I should probably have a look at the movie / tv stuff that was made from Kurt Vonnegut's stories as well. And Mother Night was the earliest of his novels to be given the Hollywood Treatment. 

I'd never seen the Mother Night movie, though I was aware of its existence from the moment it came out. Part of the reason I'd not gone out of my way to see it was because Kurt made a comment     . . . I think it was in the introduction to Between Time and Timbuktu 1 --that every movie that had been based on his work failed because it was missing one main character: him. But I'd since seen episodes--maybe even all of the episodes--of Welcome to the Monkey House (I used to have them on vhs tape . . . wonder if they still exist here somewhere?) and the movie of Slaughterhouse-Five (which I'd enjoyed . . . though I'd only watched it because I'd fallen in love with Glenn Gould and found out that he'd done the music for that film). I think that was about it. No, I just recently watched Between Time and Timbuktu on the YouTub. It wasn't all that great. And I think I saw the movie version of Happy Birthday, Wanda June . . . or I might have just imagined that, since there were a lot of pictures in the book version.  

ANYway, I decided I should take a look at Mother Night. Checked Netflix. Nope. Looked on the library website. Surprisingly, neither hide nor hair of it was to be found there. Checked Amazon. Yep . . . but only if you wanted to buy it. $10 for SD on Amazon Instant Video. $7.66 (including shipping) for a used copy on dvd. More than I wanted to pay either way . . . and who knows how long it would take to get to me if I ordered it used. So I looked on the You Tub. And there it was . . . but for rent. I'd never rented from You Tub before. And was kind of hesitant to do so until I found out that they accepted PayPal. I like PayPal.

And I watched the movie . . . and it was really good. Really REALLY good. A big part of the reason why was director Keith Gordon. He just made some excellent decisions here. Things like shots of Howard W. Campbell, Jr., through the bottom of a typewriter keyboard as he works on his memoirs / confessions. Using black and white scenes in a meaningful way. Resolving some not so obvious contradictions in the ending of the novel. 

And choosing great actors.

Nick Nolte

as Howard W. Campbell, Jr., being the most important choice. Oh, man, Nick is so brilliant. He managed to fill in the cleft that Vonnegut had left in this character. No mean feat. I was so excited by his performance that I had to go on an archaeological dig to locate my copy of Rich Man, Poor Man and watch the first episode right away. (With the rest to follow in short order being the plan.)

And the superb John (did I mention I went to New York City to see him as Pozzo in Waiting for Godot a few years ago?) Goodman

as Major Frank Wirtanen,

and Alan Arkin

as George Kraft (or, more properly, "George Kraft").

I was also happy to see Frankie Faison (The Wire, Banshee, and about a million other shows dating back to 1974)

as Robert Sterling Wilson--aka The Black Führer of Harlem.

And there was also the joy of seeing Kurt Vonnegut himself at the end of the movie, doing his bit as Sad Man on Street.

Most definitely worth my $2.99. The irony being that I would not have been at all sad to have paid $10 to own the movie, since I can imagine watching it again sometime. But hindsight is always 20/20, isn't it. 

So . . . back to the books. 

Thanks for your support.

1  I'll let you know for sure in a month or so when I get to that one.