God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: A Novel

One paragraph from a Kilgore Trout book, read on the bus to Indianapolis is as true of cell phones, today, as telepathy in the book."The reason creatures wanted to use language instead of mental telepathy was that they found out they could get so much more done with language. Language made them so much more active. Mental telepathy, with everybody constantly telling everybody everything, produced a sort of generalized indifference to all information. But language, with its slow, narrow meanings, made it possible to think about one thing at a time—to start thinking in terms of projects."

An enjoyable book if you like Vonnegut. His usual social commentary. God Bless you Mr. Rosewater focuses on who we help and how we judge others.The premise:Mr. Rosewater is a man with about 80 million dollars, he uses mostly to help the people of his town. He pays their car payments, gives them money for whatever they ask. The townsfolk don't all love him, many resent his help. Meanwhile his family thinks he's crazy for helping regular people like this, and they are fighting to get control of the money so they can do "bigger and more important" things with it.

Not as engaging and inventive as Slaughterhouse-Five and Cat's Cradle, but worth the read for the Vonnegut lover. This book occasionally takes too long to make its point and requires investment on the part of the reader, but Vonnegut's classic satirical humor is still present. I myself slogged through for these acid-laced insights. I recommend starting with one of the titles mentioned here first and then continuing to explore Vonnegut through novels like this one, as well as his short stories.

I love Vonnegut. I've studied him and his work and read all his novels. THis has such good things to say about the dichotomy between rich and poor, about social justice, about the value of humanity. i think it's an important book to read about important issues. and it has interesting characters. it was written in 1965 but it is still relevant today. i think it's scary and disheartening how relevant it still is today. vonnegut compares himself to a canary in a coal mine singing about the dangers in society, but he was afraid he was not doing enough good.

This is not the best I've read by Vonnegut, but even at his less than best, he's laps ahead of his competition in the genre. This is a very good book, which as usual has Kilgore Trout as a secondary character. I only recall one book where Trout was a protagonist. Breakfast of Champions, if I'm not mistaken. That book is definitely Vonnegut at his best. This is a close second or third place. The important thing is that it's on the podium, deservedly. If you've never read Vonnegut, I'd start with his short stories, and maybe Breakfast, before you tackle this one. Those others will give you necessary perspective. Enjoy!

I have been a Kurt Vonnegut reader since, well, as long as I can remember. In God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, Vonnegut references numerous other characters he has invented throughout his career. Rosewater, the title character, is a benevolent man with the Rosewater Foundation at his disposal. With Democratic and Socialist leanings, he disperses his family's money to practically anybody who asks much to the chagrin of his father, The Senator.

Well, Kurt is not really forgotten, but any and all of his books are worth a read today. In one paragraph in this book he pretty much nails why and how western civilization is consuming itself. Hint: has something to do with greed. If you are new to Vonnegut, this is not the first or second book I would read. I'd give five stars to Sirens of Titan, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five. Wonderful irony in all his books. A unique writing style and lots of disguised wisdom. Most of all, very funny and highly entertaining.

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is a book about an extremely wealthy man who inherited his money from his father. Eliot has no real purpose in life and becomes obsessed with volunteer fire fighting after a tour of a firehouse. He trades his expensive suits for those like the firefighters wear because he wants to be more like them. Eliot begins to find purpose in life by spending his money, through his foundation, to help those less fortunate than himself. He takes it to the extreme, even allowing someone to live in his mansion while he lives in a small apartment and giving cash to anyone who asks for it at any hour of the day. Others on the foundation do not support these decisions as they feel some people are taking advantage of his untethered generosity. He believes that everyone deserves help, regardless of socioeconomic status. He may be extreme in how he handles this revelation that helping others makes his life much more fulfilling, but he doesn't care if people think he is insane for doing it. Overall, this is a good book and Eliot makes the point that no one person is better than another and it is right to treat others the way you would like to be treated.

I’d been reading rather serious books and needed something humorous, so I got the Kindle edition of Kurt Vonnegut’s God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. It’d been a while since I’d read Vonnegut. Years ago, I enjoyed Slaughterhouse Five, Breakfast of Champions, and Hocus Pocus. I also read Cat’s Cradle, but didn’t really go in for it. It was a little too sci-fi for me. God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is good, but pretty out there. The beginning is highly structured and organized, but the narrative soon spins off into myriad tangents. At times the writing is practically psychedelic. Imagine if the album The Worst of Jefferson Airplane were a book. The story is a bit of a magic carpet ride. Consequently, it’s hard to say what Rosewater means: commentary on the oddball nature of capitalistic society? The apparent randomness and unfairness of the universe? Everyone will take away something different. It’s not as funny as Breakfast and, for me, not as deep as Hocus Pocus, but it’s still good – funny in places, nicely written, and – best of all – highly imaginative. And it was nice to read something quirky and relatively light. I hope to read more of Vonnegut in the future.Troy Parfitt is the author of Why China Will Never Rule the World along with War Torn: Adventures in the Brave New Canada.

A Capraesque tale of philanthropy told with whimsy and hope. Full of warmth, dazzlingly inventive characterisation and humour. No one says less with more than Vonnegut, we need him in our world now...then again, from a Tralfamadorian perspective, he still is.

Another great, satirical romp by the mighty Kurt Vonnegut. If, like me, your starting point for KV was Slaughterhouse 5 and you're on a mission to read as much of his output as possible, this is a must. If this is your starting point, it's still a must.Its short page count is stuffed full of Vonnegut's typical quirky characters, razor-sharp wit and deft prose. A darkly humorous swipe at High Society and the wealth gap that works just as well today as it did, no doubt, at time of writing.

Vonnegut is a sharp and flamboyant satirist. His imagination is wild, his tone generous and his humor sane. This confident and mature work also has a pitiless eye on grand American hypocrisy.

Some of his best work..just below S5, Mother Night and cats cradle. Would recommend for anyone who likes Vonnegut. Stellar.

If you have never read anything by Kurt Vonnegut you are missing a wonderful and funny writer with great humour and warmth who casts a satirical eye over the achievements of humanity. This book is a very good place to start reading Vonnegut.

Having read other books by Kurt Vonnegut , this I was looking forward to and didn't disappoint. The story was good and moved along at a good pace compared to slaughter house 5 this is a better story . Will be reading more

This is a wonderful book. Like a shorter, but not abridged, version of the New Testament.

It was a treat to read this eccentric and intriguing satire on modern American attitudes to what would, centuries ago, have been considered saintly behaviour by a sensitive and considerate human being. An indictment of aspects of the American Dream and general way of life

VG

Kurt Vonnegut never fails to deliver for me. Its quirky but its Kurt

Just as relevent today as when it it was first published . the lessons are all there ...when will we learn ?

A good read

In my opinion, Vonnegut's second best behind Cats Cradles. A humanitarian masterpiece I guess? Eliot Rosewater is certainly one of the most charming protagonists in modern American literature.

Once again, Vonnegut has succeeded in discussing a serious and pervading issue while making me laugh and keeping me entertained the whole time.