Breakfast of Champions 
asked by ragtop on November 9, 2006 4:34 AM
"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.
Reviews
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This book is probably one of the best pieces of literature I have ever read. The ability of the author to go back and forth between characters seemlessley is impeccable and can never be duplicated by another.
The idea behind Breakfast of Champions is a conflict between two main characters, Kilgore Trout & Dwayne Hoover, both with seemingly separate lives and completely different views on life, but once their paths are crossed, their lives change forever.
In the beginning, a description of the characters are offered with extensive background information all leading up to their lives at the present and how in some way, shape, or form, they both rely on eachother for sanity. The author then goes even further to describe how their present life predicaments are affecting their outlooks on life and their performence both sexually and mentally are changing with every breath they take.
Vonnegut goes back and forth between voices, a pious & omniscient figure to becoming either both or one of the main characters, al done seemlessly and impeccably.
Kilgore Trout writes stories that the author comes up with which are then transduced as being sources of porographic ideas and Dwayne Hoover is a man who is beoming more and more psychotic everyday, he is losing his grip on reality and with the coming of Kilgore Trout to an art convention that Dwayne is also attending, Trout's stories, specifically one about all people being pre-set robots, causes Dwayne to snap and go on a rampage harming those who are most closest to him as well as people who need to be harmed, but still have no right to be harmed by Dwayne.
If anything, this book is a masterpiece and a work of art and I would recommend this book to all whose mind is as twisted and confusing as the author's, as well as someone who can put up with consistent references to the male genitalia, as grotesque as it might become.
The idea behind Breakfast of Champions is a conflict between two main characters, Kilgore Trout & Dwayne Hoover, both with seemingly separate lives and completely different views on life, but once their paths are crossed, their lives change forever.
In the beginning, a description of the characters are offered with extensive background information all leading up to their lives at the present and how in some way, shape, or form, they both rely on eachother for sanity. The author then goes even further to describe how their present life predicaments are affecting their outlooks on life and their performence both sexually and mentally are changing with every breath they take.
Vonnegut goes back and forth between voices, a pious & omniscient figure to becoming either both or one of the main characters, al done seemlessly and impeccably.
Kilgore Trout writes stories that the author comes up with which are then transduced as being sources of porographic ideas and Dwayne Hoover is a man who is beoming more and more psychotic everyday, he is losing his grip on reality and with the coming of Kilgore Trout to an art convention that Dwayne is also attending, Trout's stories, specifically one about all people being pre-set robots, causes Dwayne to snap and go on a rampage harming those who are most closest to him as well as people who need to be harmed, but still have no right to be harmed by Dwayne.
If anything, this book is a masterpiece and a work of art and I would recommend this book to all whose mind is as twisted and confusing as the author's, as well as someone who can put up with consistent references to the male genitalia, as grotesque as it might become.
reviewed by redsink on November 16, 2006 2:28 AM
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The mechanism is brilliant: if we are machines, so what do you care if somebody starts to kill us? But if we aren't... If each one of us has free will... If I'm the only being in this Earth with real free will, Vonnegut has done a good job in trying to convince me that this is not the case. A real Humanist. Thank you.
reviewed by redapple on November 24, 2006 5:41 AM
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A beautiful journey through irregularity, Breakfast of Champions takes classic Kurt Vonnegut and combines it with a twisting plot line.
reviewed by scoobie on November 25, 2006 1:46 PM
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Dwayne Hoover, a successful business man and all around nice guy, goes crazy because he comes to believe that he was created as an amusing experiment in free will. He believes this because of the bad chemicals running through his brain (natural chemicals, not drugs) and because of a book he reads by neglected science fiction writer Kilgore Trout.
Trout is old and ignored and anti-social, but deeply moral. He has suffered his entire life and is an utter failure as an author, but now suddenly finds himself invited to speak at an arts festival in Midland City. This is where Dwayne Hoover reads one of Trout's books, goes crazy because he thinks he is the only person in the world with free will, and begins beating people up. (A lot of other stuff happens too, of course, but I don't want to give away too much.)
I'll just say that I like to think of Breakfast of Champions as an absurd, satirical time-capsule. Vonnegut uses his typical humor, sarcasm, and sense of irony to highlight certain destructive, dehumanizing (and unfortunately man-made) features of modern life on earth. The writing is often hilarious and nearly always tongue-in-cheek or absurd...but the points Vonnegut makes are deadly serious. Perhaps Kilgore Trout's tombstone best captures the ultimate idea behind this book: "We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane."
P.S. I very much enjoyed Breakfast of Champions, but if you've never read Vonnegut before I would suggest beginning with Cat's Cradle or Slaughterhouse-Five. If you find that Vonnegut is your cup of tea then I would think you'll like this one too.
Trout is old and ignored and anti-social, but deeply moral. He has suffered his entire life and is an utter failure as an author, but now suddenly finds himself invited to speak at an arts festival in Midland City. This is where Dwayne Hoover reads one of Trout's books, goes crazy because he thinks he is the only person in the world with free will, and begins beating people up. (A lot of other stuff happens too, of course, but I don't want to give away too much.)
I'll just say that I like to think of Breakfast of Champions as an absurd, satirical time-capsule. Vonnegut uses his typical humor, sarcasm, and sense of irony to highlight certain destructive, dehumanizing (and unfortunately man-made) features of modern life on earth. The writing is often hilarious and nearly always tongue-in-cheek or absurd...but the points Vonnegut makes are deadly serious. Perhaps Kilgore Trout's tombstone best captures the ultimate idea behind this book: "We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane."
P.S. I very much enjoyed Breakfast of Champions, but if you've never read Vonnegut before I would suggest beginning with Cat's Cradle or Slaughterhouse-Five. If you find that Vonnegut is your cup of tea then I would think you'll like this one too.
reviewed by squeege on November 25, 2006 10:32 PM
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This is honestly one of the worst books I have ever read. I was saddened to see how far Vonnegut's mind had apparently deteriorated by the time I read this novel. It's a bunch of disjointed babbling about the most boring things imaginable; if I hadn't read the back of the book I wouldn't even be sure if it was intended to be humor. Practically nothing in it is the least bit funny or entertaining. It looks like it was written by a heavily drugged 10-year-old as a school assignment to explain Earth to an even younger and more ignorant child. Throughout there are infantile explanations of the most basic terms as if Vonnegut intended his book to survive for centuries until it was a historical relic, used by future societies to understand ours. One of the most stunningly idiotic things in the book (or any book I have read) is his technique of babbling about himself in the first person in the middle of telling the story, as if the story wasn't boring enough in itself; it has perhaps two plot events total. He even makes claims about his penis size. It is beyond me how any intelligent person above the age of 12 could find this interesting.
I loved Player Piano, Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle, which were nothing like this book, and can only assume from the stark contrast that Vonnegut suffered from senility at a much younger age than usual.
I loved Player Piano, Slaughterhouse Five and Cat's Cradle, which were nothing like this book, and can only assume from the stark contrast that Vonnegut suffered from senility at a much younger age than usual.
reviewed by blueoasis on November 27, 2006 2:41 PM