A review by caitcoreads
Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

5.0

In Vonnegut’s über meta/dark/satirical tale, Breakfast of Champions, he continuously builds towards the convergence of two characters, Dwayne Hoover (a well to do businessman inching towards insanity) and Kilgore Trout (a science-fiction writer/cynic whose writing has so far only appeared in pornographic magazines). The meeting of these two characters will mean the dissolve of one, and the rise of another. What I love most about Vonnegut’s books, and in particular this one, is his ability to make humorous observations of our rather dismal and bleak society while maintaining a focused poignancy. What is another unique characteristic of this novel is the narration style, if you can even call it a style. Vonnegut will speak of a particular object, known to everyone (I am assuming) and will follow the pattern, “introduction of said item…it looked like this:” followed by a rudimentary illustration of that object. He also breaks the average narrative style by telling his readers in the very beginning how this tale will come to its fruition. It’s wacky, but I loved it so much, and was circling quotations like a madwoman the whole time, yelling out loud that, “he REALLY gets it.” If you’ve never read Vonnegut, I think this book is a great place to start.