Impactful, amazingly beautiful. Reads like poetry and gives a sobering portrait of human nature and modern society.

You have to hand it to Uncle Kurt. How many writers do you know who can write about a dangerously sensitive subject in the form of bittersweet black comedy and pull off an utterly compelling book?

Howard W. Campbell Jr. is a playwright turned Nazi propagandist and American spy. Only three people know his anti-Semitic broadcasts actually contain secret information for the Allies. The propaganda he writes makes him one of the most hated men on the planet. Similarly, he is a hugely inspiring figure to those who believe his broadcasts are genuine. This moral dichotomy, where a good man pretends to be an evil man and does evil in the name of good, is summarised succinctly in the realisation he is a hero to Nazis and Allies alike, regardless of which side won the war.

It’s powerful, extraordinary stuff. More than any other Vonnegut I’ve read so far, it has a gripping plot filled with unexpected twists and turns and the kind of tense scenes that made me want to bite my fingernails to the quick. Yet Uncle Kurt has an uncanny ability to make you laugh at subjects that would otherwise be considered taboo in any form of comedy. In all this, he still manages to treat the atrocities of WWII with absolute sincerity. He really is one of a kind, a master satirist with a profound sense of humanity. I think this outing has probably been overlooked as one of his best works.

Vonnegut #4 - A much more sombre affair