God bless you, Mr. Rosewater

Name: God bless you, Mr. Rosewater
ISBN: 9780586022795

or, Pearls before swine

by Kurt Vonnegut, Gwilym Tonnerre, Eric Michael Summerer · first published 1965

14mentions

5recommended by

13HN commenters

2012–2025first – last mentioned

38% recommend62% neutral

Why HN recommends it

An underrated Vonnegut novel and a favorite among fans. It pairs well with Sirens of Titan and Slaughterhouse-Five as an entry point into his satirical fiction.

Summarised by Claude from recommending comments

Fiction & Literature

Second only to Slaughterhouse-Five of Vonnegut's canon in its prominence and influence, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater (1965) presents Eliot Rosewater, an itinerant, semi-crazed millionaire wandering the country in search of heritage and philanthropic outcome, introducing the science fiction writer Kilgore Trout to the world and Vonnegut to the collegiate audience which would soon make him a cult writer. Trout, modeled according to Vonnegut on the science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon (with whom Vonnegut had an occasional relationship) is a desperate, impoverished but visionary hack writer

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Mentions per year

What Hacker News says

drclau · Mar 29, 2020 · Recommends

Kurt Vonnegut's works: The Sirens of Titan, Mother Night, Cat's Cradle, Slaughterhouse Five, Player Piano, Jailbird, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater... Find the time to read Vonnegut.
on “Ask HN: Great fiction books that have had a positive impact on your life?” ↗
mcphage · Oct 7, 2024 · Recommends

For another take on Vonnegut, my favorite of his were Bluebeard and God Bless You Mr. Rosewater.
on “Ask HN: What's the "best" book you've ever read?” ↗
twog · Dec 12, 2018 · Recommends

…on my reading, thinking and creating. Strongly recommend picking up a few of his novels, you wont be able to put them down. My favorites are Slaughterhouse Five, Cats Cradle, Breakfast of Champions and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
on “Vonnegut’s Asterisk (2013)” ↗
scrozier · Nov 22, 2019 · Recommends

God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater is actually my favorite. Hope you get to it! Some of his later books, as you note, just got so preachy and overwrought, I couldn't get through them.
on “Kurt Vonnegut Museum Opens in Indianapolis” ↗
dekhn · Sep 3, 2013 · Recommends

"God Bless You, Mr Rosewater" is one of the most underrated books of all time. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Bless_You,_Mr._Rosewater Of course, "Sirens of Titan" is the other great one.
on “Frederik Pohl has died” ↗
shantly · Nov 21, 2019 · Mentions

I've read all of them but Player Piano (started it twice, just got distracted both times, it wasn't bad) and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Of the rest, Hocus Pocus and Jailbird are the two that stuck the least. Timequake was OK as a for-the-fans kind of thing I guess, but not great. Bluebeard is already a kind of summing-up of Vonnegut's…
on “Kurt Vonnegut Museum Opens in Indianapolis” ↗
habosa · Nov 3, 2020 · Mentions

…an inferiority complex and shapeless feelings of guilt, as most people do, the lawyer can often take as much as half the bundle, and still receive the recipient’s blubbering thanks.” ― Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater
on “The public has a right to know how companies that pay no taxes pull it off” ↗
habosa · Nov 28, 2021 · Mentions

…an inferiority complex and shapeless feelings of guilt, as most people do, the lawyer can often take as much as half the bundle, and still receive the recipient’s blubbering thanks.” - Kurt Vonnegut, God Bless You Mr. Rosewater
on “Ask HN: Why is Docusign a $50B company?” ↗
nuclearnice3 · Aug 28, 2021 · Mentions

…crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies -- : "'God damn it, you've got to be kind.'" Kurt Vonnegut https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/God_Bless_You,_Mr._Rosewater
on “This Is Water (2005)” ↗
LeifCarrotson · Jun 2, 2025 · Mentions

…man. You’ll be shown your place on the riverbank, and handed a bucket all your own. Slurp as much as you want, but try to keep the racket of your slurping down. A poor man might hear.’ Kurt Vonnegut, "God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater" https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/4076-god-bless-you-mr-...
on “If you are useful, it doesn't mean you are valued” ↗
andybak · Sep 2, 2013 · Mentions

…distance without limit, over mysteries that will never die, over the fact that we are right now determining whether the space voyage for the next billion years or so is going to be Heaven or Hell." (from 'God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater' 1965)
on “Frederik Pohl has died” ↗
avip · Nov 21, 2018 · Mentions

>We just situated ourselves near a river of (other people's) money and tried to siphon off a bit of the flow Are you quoting God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater there?
on “Ask HN: Have you ever regretted working on a product?” ↗
drewblaisdell · Mar 31, 2012 · Mentions

…the article. I would say to start there. Here are the grades Vonnegut himself gave his own books (in Palm Sunday): Slaughterhouse-Five: A+ Cat’s Cradle: A+ The Sirens of Titan: A Mother Night: A God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater: A Jailbird: A Player Piano: B Welcome to the Monkeyhouse: B- Breakfast of Champions: C Wampeters, Foma and Granfalloons: C Palm Sunday: C Slapstick: D Happy Birthday, Wanda June: D
on “I am very real” ↗
jakear · Nov 10, 2022 · Mentions

…Vonnegut’s sweet-natured voice gets ripped out of the context of the fiction and rendered down into fridge-magnet poetry and social media banalities. (Run a Google search for images of his 1965 novel God Bless You, Mr Rosewater and you’ll first find pictures not of the cover or author, but of grotesquely bucolic wall prints bearing a line untimely ripp’d from the book: “God damn it, you’ve got to be kind.”) Not sure where the…
on “Kurt Vonnegut at 100” ↗