Breakfast of Champions: A Novel
by Kurt Vonnegut
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Book Summary Information
Author: Kurt VonnegutEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 1999-05-11
ISBN: 0385334206
Number of pages: 303
Publisher: Dial Press Trade Paperback
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780385334204
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Breakfast of Champions: A Novel
Book Review: Set your fictions free with martinis and washing machines...
Summary: 5 Stars
In "Breakfast of Champions" Vonnegut gripes with such irresistible verve that it's a let down when "THE END" (or, in this case, "ETC.") appears. Scrawled, almost childish, cartoons punctuate the text throughout and add to the askew feel. As with many Vonnegut books, humor seems to sugar-coat deep confusion and bitterness. Numerous laugh-out-loud observations on the human condition and the corrupt state of the USA belie the novel's underlying seriousness. But calling this "a novel" with "a story" seems like a misnomer. Here "the story" provides a framework for Vonnegut to vent about the country he loves and hates. Even "The Star Spangled Banner" gets derided, as well as the "baroque trash" displayed on the money. Other digressions, a la "Tristram Shandy," which might have inspired Nicholson Baker's "overwhelming detail" approach, make this a curlicue tale replete with "too much information" moments. For example, the narrative expounds on character's intimate measurements. The squeamish will squirm and men will question their averageness. By book's end, everyone will question their sanity.
Dwayne Hoover, the main character, does. In fact he loses it altogether in a final mutilating rampage. His homosexual son Bunny fares particularly bad. This bloody climax arrives when Hoover meets one of Vonnegut's most famous alter-egoes: science fiction writer Kilgore Trout. One of Trout's stories, "Now It Can Be Told," convinces Hoover, whose mental health already hangs by a tendril, that everyone around him are machines and only he possesses free will. That idea serves as the book's main protagonist, the catalyst to dénouement. A synopsis collage of Trout's other stories fills out the dramatis personae. These narrative tidbits loom just as large as the human characters. One memorable example concerns a story about aliens who communicate by tap dancing and farting. All the characters, stories and people, relate to the wider context of American culture in the early 1970s (remember C.O.D.?). Vonnegut finds much that confuses and disgusts him in that culture: the prevalence of songs that sell things, slavery's legacy and the "N" word (which appears with shocking frequency), environmental degradation, the yawning gap between the "fabulously well-to-do" and those who own "doodley-squat," and overall senselessness. In the end, Vonnegut himself bursts into the story and plays God with himself and the characters. In a strange coming-out he confronts his creation, Kilgore Trout, and "sets him free." Trout, who has just peeled coagulated toxic river sludge from his legs and lost the tip of a finger, pleads with the literary but all-too-human deity: "Make me young!"
Though Vonnegut didn't seem to think much of "Breakfast of Champions" (he says "I feel lousy about it" in the preface and grades it a "C" in "Palm Sunday"), it nonetheless remains one of his most memorable books. It's a wild ride. The juxtaposition of dissolute text and bawdy schoolboy cartoons makes it a unique and unforgettable experience. Certain demographics will revel in its irreverence and "sick of the world" tone. It may even shock some readers, despite its age. Somehow, though it seems to argue that existence is mostly meaningless, cruel, and stupid, this strange book delivers a message of hope. Exposing the inanities of modern life provides the first crucial step towards their amelioration. Though we're not Gods, we can, like Vonnegut, fake it pretty well. We're not completely powerless. And, just as the world in "Breakfast of Champions" is Vonnegut's creation for catharsis and manipulation, this world is our creation. We can set our fictions free. And this lesson alone makes "Breakfast of Champions" a worthwhile read. Add to that the cartoon of an anus and undiluted brilliance results. Read.
Summary of Breakfast of Champions: A Novel
In Breakfast of Champions, one of Kurt Vonnegut?s most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us how to see the truth."We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane." So reads the tombstone of downtrodden writer Kilgore Trout, but we have no doubt who's really talking: his alter ego Kurt Vonnegut. Health versus sickness, humanity versus inhumanity--both sets of ideas bounce through this challenging and funny book. As with the rest of Vonnegut's pure fantasy, it lacks the shimmering, fact-fueled rage that illuminates Slaughterhouse-Five. At the same time, that makes this book perhaps more enjoyable to read.
Breakfast of Champions is a slippery, lucid, bleakly humorous jaunt through (sick? inhumane?) America circa 1973, with Vonnegut acting as our Virgil-like companion. The book follows its main character, auto-dealing solid-citizen Dwayne Hoover, down into madness, a condition brought on by the work of the aforementioned Kilgore Trout. As Dwayne cracks, then crumbles, Breakfast of Champions coolly shows the effects his dementia has on the web of characters surrounding him. It's not much of a plot, but it's enough for Vonnegut to air unique opinions on America, sex, war, love, and all of his other pet topics--you know, the only ones that really count.
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