Controlled randomness are two words I would stamp on this book by Vonnegut. The narrator is the creator of the characters and controlls their actions and thoughts with the stroke of his pen. That's kind of silly metaphor for all fiction pieces where it's the author's whim and fancy of who does what when and what repercusions result from these fabricated actions. So in a way, in Breakfast of Champians, Vonnegut is poking fun at serious fiction, because none of it is true and all of it is an author's whim.
With a humorous touch this story builds up to the first art festival in Midland Indiana. The characters are ridicilous mostly focusing on two deranged souls; a succesful car dealer who owns half of Midland but is progressivly loosing his marbles, and an prolific unknown author whose published hundreds of stories in girly magazines, and is also inzane. The narrator created both of them and through the process of this book with a begninning, middle, and end the story develops and builds up to the great bang of these two individuals meeting. Other characters of the narrators device serface and are all described as bizarre, exaggerated, and with a certain doom that is funny.
To paraphrase my last sentance this book is bizarre, exaggerated, and with a certain doom that is funny because it's about our beloved country and is definitly an americana novel. It covers the absurdity of our wars, slavery, racism, comercialism, materialism, patriotism, medeaism, and everything else red, white, and blue. The Midland character represents the American dream, and how it can be shattered. The abscure author character represents how our country turns a blind eye to true art unless it can be profitable. At the midland festival they bought a 50,000 dollar painting which was simplistic artwork, but the price tag showed validity. A lot of Vonnegut's jokes are at the expense of our country, but may take an American reader to appreciate them.
This book is enjoyable and I gave it four stars instead of five because one loose end character or situation just dissolved and dissappeared. And I'm a product of literary thought we're everything should be resolved nicely at the end, like a care package with all the emminities.
I'd say to everyone to read this one, it won't take much time, and you have nothing to lose.