God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
by Kurt Vonnegut
After taking control of the Rosewater Foundation, Eliot Rosewater dedicates his time and the copious amounts of money in his trust to helping average Americans, no strings attached. Some people––including his father, Senator Lister Ames Rosewater, the man who started the Foundation as a way to prevent tax collectors from getting at the family fortune––understand this “strange behaviour” to be caused by Eliot’s drinking problem. Others, such as a young, sleaze-ball attorney named Norman Mushari, suspect such selflessness could be used to prove Eliot to be insane––an important thing for Mushari, as the Foundation’s charter calls for the immediate expulsion of any president shown to be insane and Mushari would profit substantially for his part in the transfer of control over such a pile of treasure. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater moves between Eliot’s life in small town Indiana and Mushari’s meddling/evidence gathering. In the former, Eliot treats the lowest of the low with unconditional compassion, while they become increasingly dependent upon his kindness. And, in the latter, we learn about the growth of Eliot’s “illness,” along with the effects it had on his estranged wife, who was thankfully cured of loving and wanting to help her fellow man before doing anything more drastic than burning down a volunteer firehouse.
God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater was first recommended to me several years ago, and I’m really curious how my experience with literature could have been different had I read it back then. I say this mainly because the general concepts presented about greed, selfishness, and general difficulties in discovering something fulfilling in the modern world put me in mind of other books that left deep impressions on me, such as Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance––a book I apparently have a difficult time shutting up about lately––and Marcus Aurelius’ Meditations, except that Vonnegut’s take struck me as super straightforward and accessible. It’s possible that, had I encountered God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater before these other books, it would have left a much deeper impression on me, and it’s just as plausible to me that other books may not have resonated as strongly as they did. As such, I don’t think it’s hard to see how this story could be held so close to people’s hearts, but I’m also understanding more and more that my favourites by Vonnegut tend to involve some overarching weirdness that offers up exciting possibilities when dissected. (Of course, I accept that another read-through could change this opinion, but it’s also possible that it will cement it further.)
All that said, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is a straightforward and funny satire, criticizing damaging things that I really believe have only become more prevalent and accepted now than in Vonnegut’s time. Because of all this, I can really get behind the idea of the importance of this book in general. And, even though it’s far from being my favourite by the author, I suspect it’s got a good chance of being the most likely Vonnegut novel that I’ll be recommending to others.