God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater, or Pearls Before Swine, Kurt Vonnegut's fifth novel, was published on April 5, 1965, by Holt, Rinehart and Winston.

[3] One of its targets is the economic inequality resulting from what the book describes as the "savage and stupid and entirely inappropriate and unnecessary and humorless American class system".

[6] Another sums up Vonnegut's intention as to expose "Lust for money by despicable people whose only comic attribute is the glee with which the author has created petty indignities for them to suffer".

The description of the fire-bombing of Dresden, which Eliot hallucinates as affecting Indianapolis in chapter 13, remains a master theme from now on in Vonnegut's writing and is central to Slaughterhouse-Five.

[8] Equally a matter of history is the pornographic photograph of a woman attempting sex with a pony, given passing mention in chapter 11 of the novel and reappearing in Slaughterhouse-Five.

[9] The writer Kilgore Trout, Vonnegut's foil and fictional alter-ego, appears in person for the first time in this novel as taking part in the panel that coaches Eliot back to sanity at the end.

And the name Diana Moon Glampers, one of Eliot's main clients, is that of the Handicapper General in Vonnegut's earlier dystopic story "Harrison Bergeron" (1961), but otherwise she is totally different from the character in God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater.

Eliot, a World War II veteran, alcoholic, and volunteer firefighter, has developed a social conscience and sets out across America to visit various small towns before he lands in Rosewater County.

He suffers a bout of amnesia, recovers and is informed of the present situation, including the fact that he is set to appear the following day in court to defend himself at a proceeding intended to prove his insanity.