God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater | Kurt Vonnegut | It's hard to critique Vonnegut

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater | Kurt Vonnegut | An overlooked classic

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God Bless You, Mr....

	God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater Kurt Vonnegut Dial Press Trade Paperback, 1998 - 288 pages average customer review:based on 80 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

A rich man attempts a noble experiment with human nature. The result is an etched-in-acid portrayal of universal greed, hypocrisy, and follies of the flesh.

It's hard to critique Vonnegut

Vonnegut is one of those genius writers that you can't help but love. "Slaughterhouse 5" was my first venture into the realm of Vonnegut, but I have to say that I think I enjoyed this tale much more. Perhaps because the topic is closer to my heart, or perhaps I was able to identify more closely with the characters, I found this novel to be both thought provoking and utterly hysterical.

The short synopsis - The heir to a ridiculously large family fortune would rather spend his days helping the poor and destitute than attending the large social gatherings which his family feels he should prefer. Naturally this means that he is insane right? His family and one rather unscrupulous attorney seem to think so. They begin their plans on having him declared mentally incompetent, but he may have a trick or two up his sleeve.

I often find that I have to be in the right mood to read through a Vonnegut book, for some reason this one gripped me and I was done with it in less than 2 hours. The characters were hysterical, slightly caricaturistic and over the top, but entirely identifiable and comparable to someone we all know. This entire tale is a treatise on capitalism, money, redistribution of wealth, and the question of selflessness vs insanity. If you like Vonnegut, then this is already on your list. If you haven't encountered Vonnegut, give this book a try for an amusing look at true satire.

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An overlooked classic

Although it's probably destined to wallow in the monolithic shadows of Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is a superb novel and an easy gem (albeit a relatively minor one) in the Vonnegut canon. At heart, it's a sharp, satirical, and darkly funny portrait of American capitalism at its worst, and a genuinely engrossing tale of one man's attempt to change things for the better.

The man in question is Eliot Rosewater, a drunken volunteer fire fighter and renegade philanthropist. He's also the privileged heir to a massive family fortune and the President of a charitable organization that was established by his family as a thinly veiled tax shelter. After an eventful stint in the Second World War, Eliot decides to use his vast wealth in order to help people. He moves to a desperately poor town named after his family, and makes it his mission to unconditionally love and support every human being that asks for his help. When his family learns that he's actually using a charitable organization's funds to carry out acts of charity, he's declared everything from irresponsible to insane. Soon, his wife is divorcing him, his father is on the verge of a nervous breakdown, and a conniving lawyer is carrying out a devious plan to take a chunk of the Rosewater fortune for himself.

In Vonnegut's hands, this disturbingly realistic premise becomes the ideal framing device for his own razor-sharp commentary on class, wealth, greed, politics, love, and the ever-elusive American Dream. The story is told with plenty of characteristic dark humor and sly sarcasm, balanced by a genuine affection for humanity and an oddly graceful ending.

It's not his best novel- the story does drag in a few places, and there is a notable lack of focus- but its still an excellent work. Get this if you're a Vonnegut fan.

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Another take on "How to be good"

There are similarities between the theme of this book and Nick Hornby's How to Be Good. It's hard to tell if they come to different or similar conclusions. Hornby suggests that one person or even one family is not able to fix what needs fixing in the world singlehandedly and shouldn't try; one should instead try to keep oneself functional and have much more modest ambitions as regards altruism. In this book, Vonnegut uses satire and exaggeration to point out the "craziness" and yet the necessity of loving others unconditionally, even when there seems to be little to love about them, or when there are some very good reasons for withholding love, e.g. alcohol addiction or a criminal record. Both deal with the basic question of what attitude we should have toward people in need whose acquaintance doesn't seem to promise us any personal advantage.

I originally chose this book because of a New York Times article - it was about deodorant use, and it cited this book as describing a country where odors, thought to be society's biggest problem, were finally eliminated by eliminating people's noses. I found it an interesting premise and kept reading and reading to find it, but it didn't turn up until almost the end of the book, as a half-page summary of one of the science fiction books the protagonist had read. Ah well, at least I found it, and I ended up reading a book I probably wouldn't have picked up or even known about otherwise.

I give this book four stars first because it felt quite disconnected, jumping from one incident and set of thoughts of a certain character to another. There are paragraphs with profound insights that I enjoyed and agreed with, e.g. about the value and drawbacks of imperfect human life vs. boring ethereal perfection (disguised as a novel the protagonist was writing), or the part about language teaching on planets that had previously used only mental telepathy (from a book by a science fiction writer the protagonist likes), but these bits seemed to be thrown in simply because the author found them worthwhile and had no other handy place to put them. Maybe they were seeds of ideas that Vonnegut didn't have the time, motivation or adequate material to develop into whole books.

Second, for a long time I was wondering where the story would go, and why what I was reading at any given moment was worth getting through. I suppose in the end it did all contribute to the final point Vonnegut wanted to make, but you have to wade through quite a bit of frivolousness to get there. The book is short, but the silliness prevented me from sticking with it too long in one sitting - I mostly had to take it one or two chapters at a time then put it down for a while.

I think _Rosewater_ was worthwhile, though, and if you're a Vonnegut fan, and/or enjoy philosophical farce, you might like it too.

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"Goddamnit you've got to be kind!"

Demonstrates a good knowledge of American history--impressive really.
Humor: excellent. very funny.
Eliot Rosewater: kind of a pathetic ideal. makes you suspicious of KV-whether this is what he actually thought of life, that it would be alright if only one had no less than 10L's of Kentucky Whiskey on hand, and a massive fortune to philanthrophize with.

Still one of my all time favorites.

A nice read

Kurt Vonnegut's book, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is about money, power, and greed. The main character, Elliot Rosewater has abandoned his amazing lifestyle in New York to try an experiment of the human soul. He is a drunk, fat, dirty, and rich. He has a lot to give to the world and spends his time doing nice things for people, yet these people are so pitiable, they don't deserve it. Not everyone is happy with Eliot's work. Lawyers try to find him insane and unable to use the family fortune. The books switches between the lives of people Eliot helps, the depressing lives of some of them, the lawyers attempt to find Eliot insane and some Rosewater family history. Vonnegut makes you question Eliot's insanity or his overly niceness to the very end. It also questions the class system in America. The book has its funny moments. Overall it was an alright book and I recommend it if you want a quick, humorous read.

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