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Loading... Breakfast of Champions: A Novel (original 1974; edition 1999)by Kurt Vonnegut
Work InformationBreakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut (1974)
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Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book. No current Talk conversations about this book. This book orders chaos with words and leaves you confused in a chaotic world. I love it. ( ) Vonnegut's second piece I'm getting around to (after Slaughterhouse Five) is a witty and satirical post-modernist piece that is about nothing and everything. The prose takes time to get used to, there is little to no plot to speak of, and there's no point to the novel, which Vonnegut himself indirectly admits at one point, telling us that the worst books are one which do have a lesson - because there's no such thing in real life. BoC follows a uniquely original medley of characters and backstories who live in a town colloquially known as "the asshole of America", as they go about their everyday lives. The satire ranges from Trout's stories poking fun at how seriously we take our arbitrary notions, to pointing out ingrained and internalised sexism, racism, consumerism and even some throwaway discussions on the environment. Vonnegut's self-insertion, the amateurish drawings on display (always prefaced with "they look something like this"), and his warped worldview make for quite the ride. Even though I can understand why some might deride this, it made for brutal, maximalist and hilariously poignant reading. You go from "how the fuck did someone think of this?" to "yeah, I'm going to hell for laughing at this" in five seconds flat, and those are the best kinds of novels, as we all know. And so on. https://fromtheheartofeurope.eu/top-books-of-1973-2-breakfast-of-champions-by-ku... The book is about a science fiction writer, Kilgore Trout, on his way to a literary convention in a town which may or may not be Vonnegut’s original home, Indianapolis, and his violent encounter with a deranged local automobile dealer. The author himself features as an anonymous first-person viewpoint minor character, though one with godlike powers over the other characters. It’s a frustarting book, because it combines some very incisive social commentary with some very regrettable tics; the body measurements of female characters and penis sizes of male characters are all cited, and the n-word is freely thrown around to an extent that was surely already unacceptable in 1973. Vonnegut illustrates it with hs own drawing, which are frankly childish. There are some serious messages lurking there, and some good questions asked about what it is we really expect from fictional narratives, but the book as a whole is just self-indulgent. no reviews | add a review
Is contained inNovels & Stories, 1963-1973: Cat's Cradle / God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater / Slaughterhouse-Five / Breakfast of Champions / Stories by Kurt Vonnegut Has as a student's study guideAwardsDistinctionsNotable Lists
Fiction.
Literature.
HTML:Breakfast of Champions is vintage Vonnegut. One of his favorite characters, aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. The result 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. No library descriptions found. |
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Google Books — Loading... GenresMelvil Decimal System (DDC)813.54Literature English (North America) American fiction 20th Century 1945-1999LC ClassificationRatingAverage:
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