Cheap Breakfast of Champions (Book) (KURT VONNEGUT) Price

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Customer Reviews of Breakfast of Champions

Classic Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut, in the Preface to this book, says "This book is my fiftieth birthday present to myself." The result is a novel which is a little lighter, a little less focused, and a little more witty than his other novels. One of the main characters of this novel is Kilgore Trout, a struggling (in fact, failed) writer who can only get his stories and novels published as filler for pornographic magazines and books. Anyone who has read Slaughterhouse Five by Vonnegut will recognize Trout's name--the main character of that novel, Billy Pilgrim, spends some time in a hospital next to a man (Eliot Rosewater) who is Trout's ONLY fan, and who has a private collection of Trout's work which is larger than the one Trout himself has.

Trout makes his appearance in this book when he departs for an arts festival in a small town called Midland City. There his path crosses with Dwayne Hoover, a car dealer who is already a little off his rocker and is soon to be made completely insane by Trout's writings, which he takes seriously. Though this was not my favorite of Vonnegut's novels, and though I did not enjoy the story as much as some of his other works, I could not help enjoying this book. Vonnegut is a superb writer, a true master of his craft. The drawings he includes are funny and add to the overall satirical effect of the book. Vonnegut perhaps included that part about the book being a birthday present so it wouldn't be taken as seriously as some of his other novels. I think the best part of this book is that it seems like Vonnegut wrote it just for the sake of writing, and that he didn't care what anyone would think of it. Breakfast of Champions certainly is not the masterpiece that Slaughterhouse Five or Cat's Cradle are, but it is nevertheless a very entertaining read.

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Weird and wonderful: pure Vonnegut
Kurt Vonnegut's novel "Breakfast of Champions" follows the odyssey of oddball science fiction writer Kilgore Trout from his melancholy childhood in Bermuda, to the sleazy underside of New York City, and eventually to a fateful encounter with car dealer Wayne Hoover, a man "on the brink of going insane." Within this framework Vonnegut weaves an amazing satiric tapestry that looks at racism, mental illness, environmental crises, the nature and function of art, and many other issues. The book is filled with Vonnegut's own quirky illustrations.

"Breakfast" is harsh, even cruel, but also tender and compassionate; it's laugh-out-loud funny, yet haunting and tragic. It's also a reality-warping metaphysical triumph; Vonnegut breaks down the barriers between reality and fiction, and invites the reader into the very process of the novel's creation. He creates a more intimate bond between author, reader, and fictional character than any other writer I can think of.

Vonnegut presents some of American literature's most memorable characters in "Breakfast." But my favorite is undoubtedly Trout. Throughout the book we also get glimpses of Trout's own voluminous body of work, and meet some of his bizarre sci-fi characters. The book as a whole is also enriched by Vonnegut's unique style; he writes as if for an extraterrestrial audience to whom humanity is utterly alien.

"Breakfast" is a profane, naughty, yet profoundly spiritual book. Filled with strange and vivid details, it's an oddly comforting modern-day testament for our fractured world. Thanks, Kurt.

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Insanity!
This book is crazy. The main character, Dwayne Hoover, is an auto-dealer that suffers a mental break down because of a short story he read that Kilgore Trout, Vonnegut's alter ego, wrote. Then, after losing his mind, Dwayne goes on a shooting rampage. The narrative jumps between different time periods, but the story of Dwayne is still told effectively. There are many funny things going on in this book, like the career of Kilgore Trout, whose work only appears in dirty magazines albeit being about science fiction and dealing only with strange topics.

Vonnegut inserts himself into the book as God. He also describes the genitals of characters and gave himself the world's widest how do you do. Other types of insanity can be found in this book and it's worth reading just to encounter it. Vonnegut's style is simplistic and lucid, which means that this is a book that one can finish quickly.

There's no need to buy it because it can be found at your library. The one I frequent, for example, has three copies of this book and two shelves dedicated entirely to Vonnegut.