Breakfast of Champions
3 journalers for this copy...
From Amazon.com -
""We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane."
So reads the tombstone of downtrodden writer Kilgore Trout, but we have no doubt who's really talking: his alter ego Kurt Vonnegut. Health versus sickness, humanity versus inhumanity--both sets of ideas bounce through this challenging and funny book. As with the rest of Vonnegut's pure fantasy, it lacks the shimmering, fact-fueled rage that illuminates Slaughterhouse-Five. At the same time, that makes this book perhaps more enjoyable to read.
Breakfast of Champions is a slippery, lucid, bleakly humorous jaunt through (sick? inhumane?) America circa 1973, with Vonnegut acting as our Virgil-like companion. The book follows its main character, auto-dealing solid-citizen Dwayne Hoover, down into madness, a condition brought on by the work of the aforementioned Kilgore Trout.
As Dwayne cracks, then crumbles, Breakfast of Champions coolly shows the effects his dementia has on the web of characters surrounding him. It's not much of a plot, but it's enough for Vonnegut to air unique opinions on America, sex, war, love, and all of his other pet topics--you know, the only ones that really count."
""We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane."
So reads the tombstone of downtrodden writer Kilgore Trout, but we have no doubt who's really talking: his alter ego Kurt Vonnegut. Health versus sickness, humanity versus inhumanity--both sets of ideas bounce through this challenging and funny book. As with the rest of Vonnegut's pure fantasy, it lacks the shimmering, fact-fueled rage that illuminates Slaughterhouse-Five. At the same time, that makes this book perhaps more enjoyable to read.
Breakfast of Champions is a slippery, lucid, bleakly humorous jaunt through (sick? inhumane?) America circa 1973, with Vonnegut acting as our Virgil-like companion. The book follows its main character, auto-dealing solid-citizen Dwayne Hoover, down into madness, a condition brought on by the work of the aforementioned Kilgore Trout.
As Dwayne cracks, then crumbles, Breakfast of Champions coolly shows the effects his dementia has on the web of characters surrounding him. It's not much of a plot, but it's enough for Vonnegut to air unique opinions on America, sex, war, love, and all of his other pet topics--you know, the only ones that really count."
Journal Entry 2 by augustusgloop from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Tuesday, May 10, 2005
Quite a funny book but you have to be in the right mood for it.Passing onto kirst040 at MeetUp tonight at The Porterhouse.
A surprise RABCK after noticing it on kirst040's wishlist. Hope you enjoy it.
A RABCK from the very kind augustusgloop.
Another one I can strike off the wishlist. Thanks very much.
Another one I can strike off the wishlist. Thanks very much.
Journal Entry 4 by kirst040 from Sydney CBD, New South Wales Australia on Saturday, September 2, 2006
I finally got around to reading this, I didn't realise I'd had it for so long, sorry AG.
This is certainly a bizarre read but something kept me turning the pages. Written in the 1970's, it's a bit scary how prophetic this book was with it's rampant consumerism and a society gripped by fear mongering. Thought-provoking.
This is certainly a bizarre read but something kept me turning the pages. Written in the 1970's, it's a bit scary how prophetic this book was with it's rampant consumerism and a society gripped by fear mongering. Thought-provoking.
Never having read any Vonnegut (or Douglas Adams for that matter), I snapped this up at the BC Meetup. I plan to find and read "Slaughterhouse 5" as well, and still need to devour "1984" which is waiting patiently on my TBR shelf. Thank you for releasing!
