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calarco 's review for:
Breakfast of Champions
by Kurt Vonnegut
If you are a fan of Kurt Vonnegut, you may very well enjoy [b:Breakfast of Champions|4980|Breakfast of Champions|Kurt Vonnegut|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1327934446l/4980._SY75_.jpg|2859378]. Following a meandering timeline, taking place in Midland City, and including characters from his other work like Rosewater, Kilgore Trout, and Francine Pefko, this book is in many ways a toss up of Vonnegut’s greatest hits. Also present—is the typical narrative buildup to chaos that will inevitably pokes holes at presumed shared norms, all while denouncing arbitrary societal expectations humans push onto one another as ridiculous (peak Vonnegut here).
“Every person had a clearly defined part to play—as a black person, a female high school drop-out, a Pontiac dealer, a gynecologist, a gas-conversion burner installer. If a person stopped living up to expectations, because of bad chemicals or one thing or another, everybody went on imagining that the person was living up to expectations anyway. That was the main reason the people in Midland City were so slow to detect insanity in their associates.”
However, if you are unfamiliar with his work, I feel like Breakfast of Champions may prompt more confusion than appreciation for Vonnegut’s “brand” of madness. This largely comes down to the presence of illustrated symbols interspersed throughout the novel. I believe Vonnegut’s intention was to poke fun at imagery seemingly interlaced with cultural intertextuality, but for me they mostly felt gimmicky and underdeveloped within the context of the narrative.
Overall, this is an entertaining book filled with weird twists and some decent laughs, but I feel compared to other Vonnegut work it does pale a bit. If you are new to Vonnegut, definitely start with something else; I always recommend [b:Slaughterhouse-Five|4981|Slaughterhouse-Five|Kurt Vonnegut|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1440319389l/4981._SY75_.jpg|1683562]. If you are already a fan, definitely go for it.
“Every person had a clearly defined part to play—as a black person, a female high school drop-out, a Pontiac dealer, a gynecologist, a gas-conversion burner installer. If a person stopped living up to expectations, because of bad chemicals or one thing or another, everybody went on imagining that the person was living up to expectations anyway. That was the main reason the people in Midland City were so slow to detect insanity in their associates.”
However, if you are unfamiliar with his work, I feel like Breakfast of Champions may prompt more confusion than appreciation for Vonnegut’s “brand” of madness. This largely comes down to the presence of illustrated symbols interspersed throughout the novel. I believe Vonnegut’s intention was to poke fun at imagery seemingly interlaced with cultural intertextuality, but for me they mostly felt gimmicky and underdeveloped within the context of the narrative.
Overall, this is an entertaining book filled with weird twists and some decent laughs, but I feel compared to other Vonnegut work it does pale a bit. If you are new to Vonnegut, definitely start with something else; I always recommend [b:Slaughterhouse-Five|4981|Slaughterhouse-Five|Kurt Vonnegut|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1440319389l/4981._SY75_.jpg|1683562]. If you are already a fan, definitely go for it.