Kurt Vonnegut

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.

Or, Goodbye Blue Monday!

Breakfast of Champions

Annabelle Gauthier

We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane.

Avery

Ideas on Earth were badges of friendship or enmity. Their content did not matter. Friends agreed with friends, in order to express friendliness. Enemies disagreed with enemies, in order to express enmity.

only Dwayne was thinking and feeling and worrying and planning and so on. Nobody else knew what pain was. Nobody else had any choices to make. Everybody else was a fully automatic machine, whose purpose was to stimulate Dwayne.

Here was another piece of evil nonsense which children were taught: that the sea pirates eventually created a government which became a beacon of freedom to human beings everywhere else. There were pictures and statues of this supposed imaginary beacon for children to see. It was sort of an ice-cream cone on fire. It looked like this:Actually, the sea pirates who had the most to do with the creation of the new government owned human slaves. They used human beings for machinery, and, even after slavery was eliminated, because it was so embarrassing, they and their descendants continued to think of ordinary human beings as machines.• • •The sea pirates were white. The people who were already on the continent when the pirates arrived were copper-colored. When slavery was introduced onto the continent, the slaves were black.Color was everything.

The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them.

'Outrageous, witty, thought-provoking, unputdownable, scintillating, invigorating, ennobling, enlightening and masterly' Spectator In a frolic of cartoon and comic outbursts against rule and reason, a miraculous weaving of science fiction, memoir, parable, fairy tale and farce, Kurt Vonnegut attacks the whole spectrum of American society, releasing some of his best-loved literary creations on the scene. 'Vonnegut explains everything from an apple to the pyramids...weird, fast and inventive' Daily Telegraph

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Patrick Book

This would be 3.75 stars if I was able. I think this is probably his weakest book, but it's hard to tell (the man himself gave it a C, one of his lowest grades for his own work, but he also gave 'Slapstick' a D and that's crazy because it's one of my favourites [but who am I kidding, they're all my favourites really]). 

What's most striking about this book, especially when you go through his canon in order, is how downright mean-spirited it seems. Considering it followed 'Slaughterhouse-Five,' you would think that he would've excised any negative feelings he had about mankind by examining our actions at their empirical worst, but he comes back punching down at everyone and everything. People are literally reduced to their primary functions, acting as single-purpose machines in the eyes of a chemically imbalanced protagonist. 

Mental health is a main theme, but it is far from a screed against chemical dependency. The author himself openly takes pills to prevent him from "feeling blue." It is those left untreated for a variety of conditions that suffer the most and inflict the most harm. 

Has it aged well? Not at all. The racial epithets, the outdated gender and sexual roles, and the notions of class are woefully outmoded. 

So what is it? It's a painful, erratic read that seems intended to lay out every rotten idea that an American ever had to wilt in the sun, as if laying bare the worst of his people and their culture will cleanse them of their sins. It does not. What the reader is left with is a fraught, isolated tract of post-modern thought that shows us not every story is meant to teach us something about the meaning of life. Sometimes it is miserable, sometimes the universe throws us scraps of enjoyment. So it goes.

Sarah Sammis

When I read Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut at the start of 2010, I had approximately forty reviews I needed to review and post and another forty I had written but not yet posted. Here I am nearly a year later and I'm up to nearly two hundred reviews to write and another hundred and fifty that are written but not posted. If I were to walk away from reading I would still have nearly two year's worth of material for my blog. It's both a scary and an exhilarating thought.

Had I gotten this book reviewed in time, I would count Breakfast of Champions on my ten best "odd ball" books. Formally the book is a satire that pokes fun at American mores but it's presented as a metafiction and is a good companion piece to Blue Food Revolution (another book I was reading at the time).

The novel's plot, such that it is, follows parallel characters: Kilgore Trout, an impoverished science fiction author who has no idea of his success, and Dwayne Hoover, a Pontiac salesman convinced that Trout's words are true and the word of God.

One of Kilgore's stories involves petroleum consuming aliens who have convinced humanity to make vehicles in their image, thus creating the automobile. My first thought was "Oh, now Cars makes sense." There are many other glimpses of Trout's stories throughout the book and they are one method for Vonnegut for his satire.

Kendall McClain

Cannot deny that this book is brilliant and one of a kind, but this writing style makes it so hard for me to care!! Sorry kurty

The author questions the condition of modern man in this novel depicting a science fiction writer's struggle to find peace and sanity in the world

Breakfast of Champions is the literary equivalent of a wild trip through the mind of Kurt Vonnegut. If you thought Slaughterhouse-Five was a mind-bender, hold onto your hats. 

This book is like Vonnegut's personal playground, where he tosses aside conventional storytelling and invites you into a chaotic circus of absurdity. Picture this: a down-and-out science fiction writer named Kilgore Trout, a deranged narrator who believes he's the author's puppet and a cast of characters who are more caricatures than anything else.

As you flip through the pages (or listen to the audio), you'll encounter drawings of buttholes (yes, you read that correctly) and a treatise on the fine art of farting. It's a smorgasbord of weirdness served on a plate of satire. If you're easily offended, this book might give you indigestion or sleepless nights.

But beneath the madness lies a sharp critique of America's obsession with consumerism, violence, and the absurdity of existence itself. Vonnegut isn't just throwing words on a page; he's launching grenades at the absurdity of the human condition.

TL;DR: Breakfast of Champions is like that eccentric uncle who shows up at family gatherings and says things that make everyone uncomfortable. You might not always understand what he's talking about, but you can't help but listen, because somewhere in the chaos, there's a nugget of wisdom. So, if you're feeling adventurous and have a strong stomach for literary craziness, dive into this bizarre breakfast. Just don't expect to leave the table with your sanity intact.

Erwin Lemuel Oliva

Breakfast of Champions is the literary equivalent of a wild trip through the mind of Kurt Vonnegut. If you thought Slaughterhouse-Five was a mind-bender, hold onto your hats. 

This book is like Vonnegut's personal playground, where he tosses aside conventional storytelling and invites you into a chaotic circus of absurdity. Picture this: a down-and-out science fiction writer named Kilgore Trout, a deranged narrator who believes he's the author's puppet and a cast of characters who are more caricatures than anything else.

As you flip through the pages (or listen to the audio), you'll encounter drawings of buttholes (yes, you read that correctly) and a treatise on the fine art of farting. It's a smorgasbord of weirdness served on a plate of satire. If you're easily offended, this book might give you indigestion or sleepless nights.

But beneath the madness lies a sharp critique of America's obsession with consumerism, violence, and the absurdity of existence itself. Vonnegut isn't just throwing words on a page; he's launching grenades at the absurdity of the human condition.

TL;DR: Breakfast of Champions is like that eccentric uncle who shows up at family gatherings and says things that make everyone uncomfortable. You might not always understand what he's talking about, but you can't help but listen, because somewhere in the chaos, there's a nugget of wisdom. So, if you're feeling adventurous and have a strong stomach for literary craziness, dive into this bizarre breakfast. Just don't expect to leave the table with your sanity intact.

Boothby

Vonnegut is very good at revealing absurdity in commonplace occurences of American life and people--I recognized many of the types of people that he caricatured from living in the Midwest. But there wasn't much more substance in this than you'd find in an episode of Seinfeld, and it was generally unpleasant to read.

Frederik De Bosschere

After thorougly enjoying 'Sirens of Titan', I wanted another fix of Vonnegut's signature satire and absurdism. I must admit, I'm still out on what I thought of 'Breakfast of Champions'. Sure, there is absolute delight to be found in Killgore Trout and the consistently ludicrous premises of his many novels. However, I did not feel like the message (or punchline, if you wish) of the book truly landed. The author definitely has a unique style, but in this book, it felt somewhat over-engineered. (Especially with the author unmasking himself as the narrator, and literally shaping the story it as we read.)

! My favorite part of the book was how self-serving Vonnegut got at the end, messed up but true. The rest of the body was certainly not spectacular, besides the fact it was in that ‘Vonnegut-language’ I’ve found to enjoy so very much.

Eli Alvah Huckabee

I’m most likely placing Slaughterhouse Five on a pedestal already, but this is no Slaughterhouse Five! My favorite part of the book was how self-serving Vonnegut got at the end, messed up but true. The rest of the body was certainly not spectacular, besides the fact it was in that ‘Vonnegut-language’ I’ve found to enjoy so very much.

Omar AlHashmi

4.7/5

Freaking finally done. Now hopefully I can start reading more now that the semester is over and summer is here. 

When it comes to the book.... There really isn't anything to say. Its a Vonnegut book. If you have ever read any of his other books you would know what to expect. However, I really liked how "meta" the book was. Especially the ending. Weird book though, wouldn't recommend it to anyone who does not like Vonnegut books already.

Jenna

Wow! I love this book. The only other Vonnegut books I've read are Cat's Cradle and Slaughterhouse 5. This one may be my favorite though. I love how Vonnegut inserts himself into the story. I also thought it was really funny how he described things. Like the way he described shootings as putting holes in people. I just really love this book. I wonder what Vonnegut I should read next...

Courtney Woolery

“Of course it is exhausting, having to reason all the time in a universe which wasn't meant to be reasonable."

Pat G.

It’s clearly mentioned that this is Vonnegut “letting out all the trash in his mind” which is def accurate to the vibe of this one. Seeming to just be a run-on piece-together of a story about nothing with random characters, Kurt actually pokes you throughout with observations about society in a what-not-to-do sort of way. Insightful and weird. 

This is Vonnegut to the core, and there’s not wonder it’s one of his more acclaimed titles. 

Melody Izard

Well I'd like to review this by tap dancing and farting - but instead I will just blaze forth and say (without reference to average penis size or women's body measurements) that this is Kurt Vonnegut for god's sake and it's funny and educational (yes, I did say educational) and irreverent.

Branden Harris

Themes of chaos culminating in the most satisfying unsatisfying ending. Yes both.

Jessica Smith

There's usually a comforting kind of consistency with Kurt Vonnegut's books – they're never my favourites, with the characterisation being too shallow for that – but they're witty, left-wing, and usually just kinda fun.

Unfortunately, I didn't find this one as fun. I kept getting the characters mixed up and then it all got a bit silly at the end.

Monirah

Exactly one year ago today, I joined in the celebrations of Kurt Vonnegut’s 95th birthday and bought Breakfast of Champions, which happened to be his 50th birthday present to himself. Filled with his characteristic dark humor and his felt-tip pen drawings, Vonnegut brings forth the matter of free will, among a plethora of societal issues.

“Let others bring order to chaos. I will bring chaos to order, instead, which I think I have done.”

And, I think he has done so with great skill.

William Martinsson 

Reprint. Originally published: New York: Delacorte Press/Seymour Lawrence, c1973.

Breakfast of Champions Or, Goodbye Blue Monday!

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