Reviews with content warning for Rape - Breakfast of Champions

Satire of America. Humorous but also really thought provoking. I really enjoyed this book and Vonnegut's writing. His character breaks the third wall and Vonnegut also talks about himself and his life in the book which is again, very thought provoking.

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twoheaded_boy's review against another edition

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emotional funny reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? Yes
Loveable characters? Yes
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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paulwesterberg's review against another edition

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adventurous dark funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

I am better now.
Word of honor: I am better now.

probably my least favorite vonnegut thus far—but also the kurt vonnegut, jr. narrator feature is simply peak. not sure if this was the perfect time of my life, or absolute worst time, for me to read this one.

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kthumphrey's review

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funny lighthearted reflective fast-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.0

Definitely the worst Vonnegut book I’ve read, but still good bc it’s Vonnegut 🫶

Just a bunch of nonsense with an occasional sentence that slayed. For example:

“Our awareness is all that is alive and maybe sacred in any of us. Everything else about us is dead machinery.”

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

Do not read if this is your first Vonnegut.

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joensign's review

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dark reflective tense slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? A mix
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? It's complicated
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

2.5

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krisroll's review

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dark emotional reflective sad slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

1.0

I usually love Vonnegut, this one was very scattered. It kept my attention throughout the first half, but the last parts of the book I found myself skimming. I understand the nuances, but the ending was very hard to push through.

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golelifsu's review

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reflective slow-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? No
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

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bigenk's review against another edition

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funny medium-paced

Plot- or character-driven? Character
Strong character development? It's complicated
Loveable characters? No
Diverse cast of characters? No
Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.5

Listen:

Vonnegut is a weirdo. He can be self-indulgent and self-involved. He often subverts expectations for no other than reason than to mess with the reader. I wouldn't fault anybody for not enjoying his writing. That being said; I do enjoy his work.

Breakfast of Champions is written in a way that reminds me of how someone would describe the intricacies of humanity to an alien race. Everything is drawn out, explained with the most basic and detached of descriptions. We learn tiny little details of everybody and everything involved in the story. I can't help but be left feeling just how absurd we are as a species. This book gave me a lens through which to view that absurdity, and laugh. Humor has always been one of Vonnegut's strong points as a writer, which is one of the reasons I tend to be drawn to him. Vonnegut is also a deeply political writer, and it shows especially strongly here. He has a lot to criticize about American values, history, and social structure. He is particularly blunt about his views, which I personally enjoy. I enjoyed the deeply flawed and at times contemptible characters. I especially enjoy Kilgore.

I still don't really know what to think about Vonnegut inserting himself into the story in the latter-half.

I think that Breakfast of Champions is a tad long though. I think that it would've lost little being paired down by 50-100 pages. It dragged for me towards the second half of the book. The short, segmented way in which it is written also prevented me from getting any sort of rhythm while reading, which was frustrating.

Overall, I would say that while Breakfast of Champions is not my favorite Vonnegut work, it's definitely and excellent work of satire and metafiction, that I'm glad to have read a few times in my life.

And so on..

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