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Breakfast of Champions (平装)
by Kurt Vonnegut
| Category:
Fiction |
| Market price: ¥ 158.00
MSL price:
¥ 148.00
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| Stock:
Pre-order item, lead time 3-7 weeks upon payment [ COD term does not apply to pre-order items ] |
MSL rating:
 Good for Gifts |
| MSL Pointer Review:
Hilarious and comedically chaotic, Breakfast is the pinnacle of Kurt Vonnegut, who knows how to dish up satire like none other. |
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AllReviews |
1 2   | Total 2 pages 11 items |
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The New York Times (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
It's marvelous...he wheels out all the complaints about America and makes them seem fresh, funny, outrageous, hateful and lovable. |
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Time (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
Vonnegut is George Orwell, Dr. Caligari and Flash Gordon compounded into one writer... A zany but moral mad scientist. |
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K. A. Goldberg (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
This is one of Vonnegut's best novels, an unusual combination of grimness, social critique, and sardonic humor. There are three main characters. Dwayne Hoover is a successful car salesman, but also a man that is slipping into madness. The second character is Vonnegut alter ego Kilgore Trout, the little-known sci-fi writer of interesting ideas and sloppy prose. The last character is Vonnegut himself. Vonnegut not only inserts his thoughts into the novel, but towards the end openly debates how to proceed with the story - providing a powerful end to the book. Naturally, these pages also combine Vonnegut-style philosophy, thoughts about free will, and social critique of the USA circa 1973. This book doesn't have a strong plot, and falls a bit short of the author's Slaughterhouse Five, but it's a powerful read nevertheless. |
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Michael Crane (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
You know that anything goes once you pick up a work by the zany and terrific Kurt Vonnegut. The man knows how to dish up satire like none other. He'll spew out his complaints about the government, the world, people, etc., and instead of making it sound like a bunch of inane ranting he uses all of that to create a crazy world filled with outrageous characters and situations. "Breakfast of Champions" is an off-the-wall novel that is about 300 pages of pure hilarity and comedic chaos. Some of the most outrageous characters lie within this masterpiece.
Listen: This story revolves mainly around two characters. There's Kilgore Trout who is an aging and bitter sci-fi writer that nobody has ever heard of (except for one person). His stories have only appeared in very adult magazines. So naturally, he has "doodley-squat" to show for it. The other person that this story is about is a car dealer by the name of Dwayne Hoover, a man that everyone in town considers a "fabulously well-to-do" person. Dwayne is losing his mind and is ever so gracefully slipping into the cozy and wonderful world of insanity. What pushes him over the edge will take place when the two meet and Hoover takes one of Trout's literary works as reality. The results are unforgettable and hilariously disturbing in this dark and offbeat tale of the flawed human beings who are destroying Mother Earth.
This amazingly written book is completely addicting. I easily finished it within a week. Once you start you do not want to stop reading until you have finished. Very rarely does a book have the power to make me laugh aloud so frequently and carelessly. People must've thought I was on something when they saw me laugh so uncontrollably while reading this in public. Vonnegut's commentary as the overall storyteller provides us with such an enriching voice that really is the star of the story. He has also created some of the most memorable and certifiably insane characters ever to be witnessed by the world of fiction. Vonnegut cleverly attacks everything that is wrong in society and he does it in such a funny and witty way. His illustrations also add a lot to the story as well.
Reading a book like Breakfast of Champions reminds me why I want to be a writer. It also reminds me why we read in the first place. It is definitely a classic that stands on its own and will never EVER be duplicated. If you're looking for a "fabulously well-to-do" satirist that will never conform to the norm, Kurt Vonnegut is your man. If you have not read this book yet, I highly encourage you to check it out a.s.a.p.! It may not be your ordinary novel, but that's more the reason to read it, now isn't it? A definite new favorite that I will read again and again. |
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Bryan Jacobs (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
Using his unique style, Vonnegut tells the galaxy about our dying planet. He sees it as a hideous mess of robotic creatures programmed to destroy themselves, specifically through destruction by American capitalism and racism. At times this does seem a bit cliche, but his style is anything but. It's funny, original, and at times very personal.
The best parts of the book are when he literally draws himself into the story. He tries to be a good God to his characters, but seems to fail as our Creator must have. It's not as good as Slaughterhouse Five, but his shocking style is in strong form.
For those who want to pick up the audio version for the Vonnegut interview- don't. In the beginning of the interview Vonnegut and his interviewer both reveal that they havent read the book in a while, then proceed to talk about completely unrelated topics which go nowhere. Tucci does a fine job of reading though. |
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Henry Plate (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
This may sound like the kind of frothing review written by somebody who never read the book, but who dislikes the author and gives a bad review on principle; this isn't the case. I liked Vonnegut when I picked up this novel, on account of the much better Cat's Cradle and Mother Night, but after reading Breakfast I began to change my mind.
I don't think people should be able to get away with writing books like this.
It's self-indulgent. It's heavy-handed, smug, obnoxious and fatuous; even if I agreed with Vonnegut completley, I don't think I would be able to stomach it. His philosophy is presented as a matter of fact, in short, self-satisfied bursts of introspection, while characters from his other novels blunder around pointlessly - but what separates this novel from some existentialist or surrealist masterpiece is the disgusting, homespun sentimentality evident on every single page. It's a grand combination of nonsense and mawkishness, peppered, just for the heck of it apparently, with the tons of 'cute' sexual references and the occasional obscene drawing. Because Vonnegut himself is such an overbearing presence in the novel, I found myself hating him personally when I had finished it. Please, please don't buy this book; bury the abberation, don't let other authors think that this is what the novel has become.
(This is a negative review. MSL remarks.)
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Michael Jazza (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
Kurt Vonnegut's novel Breakfast of Champions follows the odyssey of oddball science fiction writer Kilgore Trout from his melancholy childhood in Bermuda, to the sleazy underside of New York City, and eventually to a fateful encounter with car dealer Wayne Hoover, a man "on the brink of going insane." Within this framework Vonnegut weaves an amazing satiric tapestry that looks at racism, mental illness, environmental crises, the nature and function of art, and many other issues. The book is filled with Vonnegut's own quirky illustrations.
Breakfast is harsh, even cruel, but also tender and compassionate; it's laugh-out-loud funny, yet haunting and tragic. It's also a reality-warping metaphysical triumph; Vonnegut breaks down the barriers between reality and fiction, and invites the reader into the very process of the novel's creation. He creates a more intimate bond between author, reader, and fictional character than any other writer I can think of.
Vonnegut presents some of American literature's most memorable characters in Breakfast. But my favorite is undoubtedly Trout. Throughout the book we also get glimpses of Trout's own voluminous body of work, and meet some of his bizarre sci-fi characters. The book as a whole is also enriched by Vonnegut's unique style; he writes as if for an extraterrestrial audience to whom humanity is utterly alien.
Breakfast is a profane, naughty, yet profoundly spiritual book. Filled with strange and vivid details, it's an oddly comforting modern-day testament for our fractured world. Thanks, Kurt. |
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
This book should be read for several reasons:
First, it is an important lesson in American history. In the form of a fictional town, Vonnegut creates a brilliant (read "entertaining") satire of American life. With great agility he addresses race, sexuality, gender, freedom, nature, and much more. Although still largely applicable, this satire is dated (1972).
Second, Vonnegut experiments with form; the narration occurs as an acummulation of loosely connected details. This makes the book fast and fun to read - we skip from one interesting thought to the next, and before we know it, a plot develops. The entire story is littered with profound ideas about life and art; Vonnegut is refreshingly honest and articulate concerning the great mysteries, including life's meaning and minimal art.
Third, the author demonstrates his drawing talent (albeit it limited), with almost every other page hosting a small doodle. While these pictures add little to the content, it is apparent that Vonnegut took great satisfaction in making a text complete with illustrations. For this reason, I call it art.
Fourth, this book might actually encourage you to measure your genitals. (So as to compare yourself with Dwayne, Kilgore, and the rest of the characters.) And, as a bonus, the author reveals his own measurements. In fairness, women are also reduced to their bust/waist/hips measurements. |
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Stephanie Irvin (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
Although this novel was at times childish, shocking, humorous, and perhaps even a bit disturbing, I think Vonnegut effectively conveyed his feelings concerning the more peculiar social fixations and oddities that are prevalent in our time. However, what moved me most out of all of Vonnegut's blatant strikes were his remarks concerning the value of characters in literature. Of course, almost anybody reading this book can pick out a few characters who they consider to be "main" or key characters consistently throughout the novel, but Vonnegut raises the question of the equality of characters in a novel. While Vonnegut was not completely successful in blurring the status of the main characters in his novel, I felt like his attempt at creating his supporting characters as equals was well done and I commend him for it. I'm sure Vonnegut realizes that a story in which all characters are equal in detail/depth/ development would destroy the staggered levels of complexity that make literature so fascinating, but raising the question in really caused me to stop and think. Vonnegut's illustrations prove why he's a writer rather than an artist, but I guess I appreciate how the drawings made the pages go by more quickly. |
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An American reader (MSL quote), USA
<2007-01-10 00:00>
Breakfast of Champions has to be one of the wittiest and cleverest books I've ever read. Witty for the irrevent, and quite hilarous, first few chapters; clever for the way that the seemingly random plot elements fall together, and the ingenious way in which Vonnegut inserts himself into his own novel. (What would you do if you met your Creater? Ha!) This book doesn't have very much in the way of plot, but then, this is Vonnegut we're talking about here. The story here is really secondary to the social criticism that Vonnegut doles out. Here we get his views on many things (America, slavery, racism, pollution, sex, God) all woven into the story in a clever and entertaining way. Vonnegut has an odd way of keeping you reading, he's not a master of suspense per se, but his books are always hard to put down. For one thing, his prose is always clear and lucid, and the writing is extremely fast-paced, also he drops here and there hints of what is to come in the novel without actually spelling out the details. One would think this would make it pointless and useless to finish the book, but it has, in fact, the opposite effect. I highly reccommend Breakfast of Champions to anyone looking for a good, fast, and funny read, or to those who can appreciate something truly off-kilter. |
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1 2 | Total 2 pages 11 items |
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