How grotesque that Nick Cohen should evoke the name of Kurt Vonnegut during his latest shout into the Blairthink Echo Chamber (via The Observer). The words grave and spinning come to mind.
Old Nick has cheered on the annihilation of 100,000s of civilians. For years he's dared (and failed) to justify the massive uninterrupted slaying of innocent people. Something which, for Vonnegut, can never have any justifiaction.
Obviously Cohen dropped Vonnegut's name in a pitiful attempt to claw back any notion that he may be on the side of peace and justice.
But enough! For Cohen is not worthy of even this much thought. This post is about Kurt Vonnegut.
Everyone knows of and most have read Slaughterhouse 5. Along with Heller's Catch-22, it is one of the best anti-war novels of all time. However, I don't believe it is his best book. For me this accolade goes to God Bless You, Mr Rosewater, a novel far less well known than Slaughterhouse 5.
And there's a good reason it's less well known. While Slaughterhouse 5 is anti-war, God Bless You, Mr Rosewater is anti-capitalist. Liberals and Cons can quite stomach the odd anti-war satire but an anti-capitalist satire is going too far.
The book is beautifully written, while being utterly hilarious. Every page illustrates the absurdity of life under capitalism and mocks the hypocrisies of its devotees.
The story is about an immensely rich young man who wants to divert his family's wealth into helping the poor and disenfranchised. To prevent him doing this the family hire a lawyer to prove that he is insane. And like Yossarian in Catch-22, Mr Rosewater often seems the only sane person in the novel.
It's a tragedy that this book isn't famous. But you can make amends for that by buying a copy from an independent bookshop. It should be on every socialist's bookshelf.
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