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A review by bigenk
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
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..
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..
Content Warnings
Moderate: Racism and Racial slurs
Minor: Rape