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Breakfast of Champions
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Alternate cover for this ISBN can be found here
In Breakfast of Champions, one of Kurt Vonnegut’s most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us ho ...more
In Breakfast of Champions, one of Kurt Vonnegut’s most beloved characters, the aging writer Kilgore Trout, finds to his horror that a Midwest car dealer is taking his fiction as truth. What follows is murderously funny satire, as Vonnegut looks at war, sex, racism, success, politics, and pollution in America and reminds us ho ...more
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Paperback, 303 pages
Published
May 1999
by Dell Publishing
(first published July 12th 1973)
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Connie Harper
Yes - I didn't love Slaughterhouse Five, but I thought Breakfast of Champions was mind-blowing genius.
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I am about to finish Kurt Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions. I checked out the book from the Multnomah County Library four weeks ago. I've never read anything by Kurt Vonnegut before. The book looks like this:
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I'm enjoying the book because it feels easy to read. I'm not enjoying the book because parts of it induce discomfort. There are many things in the universe that make me feel the opposite of discomfort. One of those things is a lava lamp.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
A lava lamp emi ...more
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I'm enjoying the book because it feels easy to read. I'm not enjoying the book because parts of it induce discomfort. There are many things in the universe that make me feel the opposite of discomfort. One of those things is a lava lamp.
* * * * * * * * * * * * *
A lava lamp emi ...more
Mar 20, 2017
Barry Pierce
rated it
really liked it
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Manic depressives and Drāno enthusiasts
Shelves:
20th-century,
read-in-2017
A novel is a dead tree with words on it. Breakfast of Champions is a great dead tree with words on it.
I have a little inner book snob that desperately wants to like Vonnegut. In the very unlikely event that I should find myself at a convention of bookish intellectuals, I feel like I'd fit right in if I sipped my champagne and said "Oh yes, indeed, I simply adore what Vonnegut has to say about the absence of free will..."
This is the kind of bollocks that runs through my mind on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, I just don't find him that funny most of the time. Perhaps jokes about open beavers are fu ...more
This is the kind of bollocks that runs through my mind on a daily basis.
Unfortunately, I just don't find him that funny most of the time. Perhaps jokes about open beavers are fu ...more
Breakfast of Champions = Goodbye Blue Monday, Kurt Vonnegut
Breakfast of Champions, is a 1973 novel by the American author Kurt Vonnegut. His seventh novel, it is set predominantly in the fictional town of Midland City, Ohio and focuses on two characters: Dwayne Hoover, a Midland resident, Pontiac dealer and affluent figure in the city and Kilgore Trout, a widely published but mostly unknown science fiction author. Breakfast of Champions has themes of free will, suicide, and race relations among ...more
Breakfast of Champions, is a 1973 novel by the American author Kurt Vonnegut. His seventh novel, it is set predominantly in the fictional town of Midland City, Ohio and focuses on two characters: Dwayne Hoover, a Midland resident, Pontiac dealer and affluent figure in the city and Kilgore Trout, a widely published but mostly unknown science fiction author. Breakfast of Champions has themes of free will, suicide, and race relations among ...more
Nothing is sacred in Breakfast of Champions. The narrator/Philboyd Studge/Vonnegut makes his appearance as the Creator of the Universe (or at least the creators of the characters in his novel) as he delivers what amounts to a searing meta-critique of American culture. "The big show is inside my head," he tells a waitress as he watches his main protagonists, and decides what they will do next. After his brief appearance in Slaughterhouse-Five, it was fun to see Kilgore Trout, the failed science f
...more
“Like most science-fiction writers, he knew almost nothing about science.”
Breakfast of Champions is not my favorite Kurt Vonnegut novel and I have a bit of difficulty to understand why. Maybe because it was crazier than the others that I’ve read, with long passages without any sense. There weren’t one or two deeper themes that I had to dig between the irony and the absurd. It was more of a collection of crazy talk (or talk by crazy men) mingled with the author’s ideas about the world. I enjoyed ...more
Breakfast of Champions is not my favorite Kurt Vonnegut novel and I have a bit of difficulty to understand why. Maybe because it was crazier than the others that I’ve read, with long passages without any sense. There weren’t one or two deeper themes that I had to dig between the irony and the absurd. It was more of a collection of crazy talk (or talk by crazy men) mingled with the author’s ideas about the world. I enjoyed ...more
The Emperor’s New Clothes,
As retold by Kurt Vonnegut, taking a leak (view spoiler) in front of Humanity to mirror their fictionalized realities!
(Vonnegut was apparently capable of prophetically foreshadowing what would happen to America in the 21st century, when leaks are indeed mirrors of the country's general condition! America is really taking the piss, and he KNEW it would happen.)
Once upon a time, there was ...more
As retold by Kurt Vonnegut, taking a leak (view spoiler) in front of Humanity to mirror their fictionalized realities!
(Vonnegut was apparently capable of prophetically foreshadowing what would happen to America in the 21st century, when leaks are indeed mirrors of the country's general condition! America is really taking the piss, and he KNEW it would happen.)
Once upon a time, there was ...more
This is one of my earliest favorites and I have gone back to revisit several times over the years.
In high school I was both amazed and hooked by Vonnegut's wry humor and devilish mid-western charm. I have since caught on to the more serious metaphors and themes into which he delves. But the humor drew me in initially and makes me think of Vonnegut today.
Insanity explained as a chemical imbalance and dysfunctional families, relationships and communities described as matter of factly as a still l ...more
In high school I was both amazed and hooked by Vonnegut's wry humor and devilish mid-western charm. I have since caught on to the more serious metaphors and themes into which he delves. But the humor drew me in initially and makes me think of Vonnegut today.
Insanity explained as a chemical imbalance and dysfunctional families, relationships and communities described as matter of factly as a still l ...more
What is life we live from day to day? What do we eat at breakfast? How do we cope with our problems and what are we doing for fun? What dreams do we dream and what ideas do we have in our heads?
Under the close scrutiny of Kurt Vonnegut our quotidian life turns into the most prepo ...more
The things other people have put into my head, at any rate, do not fit together nicely, are often useless and ugly, are out of proportion with one another, are out of proportion with life as it really is outside my head.
Under the close scrutiny of Kurt Vonnegut our quotidian life turns into the most prepo ...more
God, what a terrible book of nonsense.
The two main characters are just overly weird and bizarre for the sake of being bizarre. And I mean really really bizarre. (I suspect many people say they like Vonnegut because he is so damn weird, but theres gotta be a purpose to it. You can't just have completely random ridiculous thoughts that do not have any purpose towards the message of the story. When you do that, its like the intellectual version of VH1 reality; people love it for shock value, while ...more
The two main characters are just overly weird and bizarre for the sake of being bizarre. And I mean really really bizarre. (I suspect many people say they like Vonnegut because he is so damn weird, but theres gotta be a purpose to it. You can't just have completely random ridiculous thoughts that do not have any purpose towards the message of the story. When you do that, its like the intellectual version of VH1 reality; people love it for shock value, while ...more
Jul 05, 2007
Joe
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
People with bad chemicals in their heads
Good old Kurt (God rest his soul) has truly helped me understand what all this fuss is about "wide open beavers".
This is a quick and rewarding read (with funny drawings) that makes you think about the world in a totally new way. I love how Vonnegut writes about America as a civilization which died out long ago and is addressing an audience who knows nothing of it.
This book is hilarious and heart-breaking at the same time. It follows a sci-fi author (Trout) of Vonnegut's own creation who meets a ...more
This is a quick and rewarding read (with funny drawings) that makes you think about the world in a totally new way. I love how Vonnegut writes about America as a civilization which died out long ago and is addressing an audience who knows nothing of it.
This book is hilarious and heart-breaking at the same time. It follows a sci-fi author (Trout) of Vonnegut's own creation who meets a ...more
"As I approached my fiftieth birthday, I had become more and more enraged and mystified by the idiot decisions made by my countrymen."
Me too, Mr. Vonnegut. Me too. I'm not quite approaching my fiftieth, but yeh, me too.
In Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut writes as an author writing an author and their hapless creations. He uses satire to poke fun at things like:
Capitalism:
"The chief weapon of the sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it ...more
Me too, Mr. Vonnegut. Me too. I'm not quite approaching my fiftieth, but yeh, me too.
In Breakfast of Champions, Kurt Vonnegut writes as an author writing an author and their hapless creations. He uses satire to poke fun at things like:
Capitalism:
"The chief weapon of the sea pirates, however, was their capacity to astonish. Nobody else could believe, until it ...more
Back before I nicked a diploma and put that particular time and place in the rearview, there were only two authors that nearly all of my fellow Liberal Arts College English majors blabbered-on about unendingly: Chuck Palahniuk and Kurt Vonnegut. (Lucky for us all that the Second Coming of Christ didn’t happen just once but twice!) Even though I had read and liked Slaughterhouse Five as a young, emotionally-stunted and delusional fifteen year-old, I had also dutifully read through six of Chucky’s
...more
Apr 06, 2016
Sean Barrs
rated it
it was amazing
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
sci-fi,
5-star-reads
I needed this book. You have no idea how much so. Vonnegut is just so hilarious. There is a certain sense of wisdom in perfect irony, and Vonnegut’s irony is anything but perfect. It boarders upon the outrageous and plain mad. His ideas are crazy yet strangely perceptive; it’s like he sees beyond the idiotic surface world of human culture, of life itself, and makes fun of it. He points at it and has a good old laugh. If you read his books, he’ll share it with you too! He's good like that.
“The t ...more
“The t ...more
Breakfast of Champignons
Now It Can Be Told, Thank God
So I finished reading this novel soon after I arrived at my hotel, and I thought I’d better write a review while it was still fresh in my mind. But, first, I decided to go down to the cocktail lounge for a drink. All the seats at the bar were taken, so I had to sit by myself at a table for four.
The waitress took my order. A dry martini. When she returned, she placed it before me and said, “Here it is. The breakfast of champions!”
I sucked on t ...more
“in nonsense is strength”
― Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions
Sometimes, I think of Breakfast of Champions as top shelf Vonnegut (five stars). Sometimes I think of it as second shelf Vonnegut (four stars). I think it could exist easily on both shelves. Since I own a couple copies, and have read it a couple times, I will forever physically keep it on two shelves (Library of America on one, Laurel Mass-Market Paperback on a lower shelf). The Laurel Mass-Market is also the one I try to bribe and ...more
― Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions
Sometimes, I think of Breakfast of Champions as top shelf Vonnegut (five stars). Sometimes I think of it as second shelf Vonnegut (four stars). I think it could exist easily on both shelves. Since I own a couple copies, and have read it a couple times, I will forever physically keep it on two shelves (Library of America on one, Laurel Mass-Market Paperback on a lower shelf). The Laurel Mass-Market is also the one I try to bribe and ...more
So this guy, Dwayne Hoover, is a rich owner of stuff, primarily a Pontiac dealership, and he has these bad chemicals in his brain. Kilgore Trout is this completely unknown science fiction writer whose stories are printed in adult magazines and such. Anyway, Dwayne reads one of Trout's novels and he thinks it's real which really messes with those bad chemicals in his brain.
The book is this collision course of these two meeting each other with all kinds of distractions and subplots and observatio ...more
The book is this collision course of these two meeting each other with all kinds of distractions and subplots and observatio ...more
Phew, it has been a LOOONG time since I've read Vonnegut. I mean "classic" Vonnegut. It feels good to be back!
I mean no offense to his most recent work, but it just doesn't compare with what he put out from about the '60s through to the '80s. It's all good stuff. I mean, I've read about a dozen books of his and I don't recall a true stinker in the lot. But if I'm going to recommend "a Vonnegut" to the interested and uninitiated, it's going to be something like Breakfast of Champions from 1973.
T ...more
I mean no offense to his most recent work, but it just doesn't compare with what he put out from about the '60s through to the '80s. It's all good stuff. I mean, I've read about a dozen books of his and I don't recall a true stinker in the lot. But if I'm going to recommend "a Vonnegut" to the interested and uninitiated, it's going to be something like Breakfast of Champions from 1973.
T ...more
Listen:
What the hell was that?
I finished reading Breakfast of Champions, closed the book, went to Goodreads, stared at that big empty review box, ate a cookie, stared at the screen some more, hands hovering over the keyboard, not moving.
And so on.
Now, if you are thinking “what is that stupid paragraph above?” Don’t worry about it.
My Achilles heel as a reader of modern fiction is that I don’t cope well with unconventional narrative styles. Streams of consciousness, omitted quotation marks, massiv ...more
What the hell was that?
I finished reading Breakfast of Champions, closed the book, went to Goodreads, stared at that big empty review box, ate a cookie, stared at the screen some more, hands hovering over the keyboard, not moving.
And so on.
Now, if you are thinking “what is that stupid paragraph above?” Don’t worry about it.
My Achilles heel as a reader of modern fiction is that I don’t cope well with unconventional narrative styles. Streams of consciousness, omitted quotation marks, massiv ...more
, or underpants
, a bucket of KFC’s fried chicken etc; often with the refrain of “and so on” at the end of passages. If your mind starts to wander he will cleverly bring you back with “Listen:”. Not content with stuffing the book with eccentric characters, Vonnegut also wrote himself into the novel, doing some very surreal things as the creator of the book’s universe. 
When I read this novel as a teenager, I remember finding the following paragraph strikingly witty:
1492. As children we were taught to memorize this year with pride and joy as the year people began living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America. Actually, people had been living full and imaginative lives on the continent of North America for hundreds of years before that. 1492 was simply the year sea pirates began to rob, cheat, and kill them.Though since then, the point has ...more
The House of Trouts:
Kilgore Trout’s latest book, World’s Funniest Thermonuclear Accidents, was forthcoming from Michael O’Mara. He shared a bathroom with Kilgore Trout, whose latest book, Complications in the Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum, had forthcome from Yale Press. The two Trouts co-rented a kitchen with Kilgore Trout, whose book I Was a Teenage Obergruppenführer, had not found a publisher. All three Trouts did not read each other’s books and did not discuss literary matters at all. When o ...more
Kilgore Trout’s latest book, World’s Funniest Thermonuclear Accidents, was forthcoming from Michael O’Mara. He shared a bathroom with Kilgore Trout, whose latest book, Complications in the Chrono-Synclastic Infundibulum, had forthcome from Yale Press. The two Trouts co-rented a kitchen with Kilgore Trout, whose book I Was a Teenage Obergruppenführer, had not found a publisher. All three Trouts did not read each other’s books and did not discuss literary matters at all. When o ...more
It's really indecent how much I like this book. It's nearly as indecent as how Vonnegut treated his character Kilgore Trout.
Mind you, he doesn't rob, cheat or abuse the character in the traditional sense. In fact, the author shows up, treats the damn guy to success, wealth and fame, tells him he's gonna win some fancy awards in the future, and he does it only because he can.
What a damn jerk.
I mean, look at all these other SF authors other than Kilgore Trout who spend their lives writing stories ...more
Mind you, he doesn't rob, cheat or abuse the character in the traditional sense. In fact, the author shows up, treats the damn guy to success, wealth and fame, tells him he's gonna win some fancy awards in the future, and he does it only because he can.
What a damn jerk.
I mean, look at all these other SF authors other than Kilgore Trout who spend their lives writing stories ...more
In spite of a few funny one-liners and a humdinger of a premise, I don't like this book half as much as Vonnegut's earlier work. It isn't just the fact that it's irritatingly repetitive, which it is, or that it grossly overuses the N-word, which it does. It's this: Vonnegut seems tired, winded. His spirits are flagging. There is wistfulness but little warmth, as though a chill has settled on him. My favorite Vonnegut puts on a brave face and holds out hope, speaks from a place of optimism. This
...more
He was a graduate of West Point. West Point was a military academy that turned young men into homicidal maniacs for use in war.
Another brilliant ride through Vonnegut-land. Part comedy, part searing social satire, this book has its fourth wall broken more than any other book I’ve read. At times, I may not have understood where it was going or what the “point” was, but it certainly left me satisfied. Also, I am now completely convinced of Mr. Vonnegut’s influence over Douglas Adams.
The Creator of ...more
Another brilliant ride through Vonnegut-land. Part comedy, part searing social satire, this book has its fourth wall broken more than any other book I’ve read. At times, I may not have understood where it was going or what the “point” was, but it certainly left me satisfied. Also, I am now completely convinced of Mr. Vonnegut’s influence over Douglas Adams.
The Creator of ...more
Biting satire, crude drawings, crazy characters--a deliciously low-brow humor. This is an amazing accomplishment.
Who is Kilgore Trout? I’m Kilgore Trout, you’re Kilgore Trout. He is every hack writing who ever felt overwhelmed by his creativity and underwhelmed by his talent. He is anyone who has ever tried and failed. I suppose there is a little Trout in all of us, especially if you like seafood.
One of the great things about the book is Kilgore Trout’s endless imagination and his ability to c ...more
Who is Kilgore Trout? I’m Kilgore Trout, you’re Kilgore Trout. He is every hack writing who ever felt overwhelmed by his creativity and underwhelmed by his talent. He is anyone who has ever tried and failed. I suppose there is a little Trout in all of us, especially if you like seafood.
One of the great things about the book is Kilgore Trout’s endless imagination and his ability to c ...more
This was an interesting book. It was layered with black humor only the way Kurt Vonnegut could write. There really is no plot, but the reading is very unique and paints a picture for the reader. The structuring is simple: simple sentences, simple syntax, and simple dialogue that gives way to big ideas. I found myself thinking about it even when I wasn't reading: in the car on the way to work, in the evening. The illustrations that highlight the narrator's ideas are common sketches found on the c
...more
Shit, piss, fuck, cunt, cocksucker, motherfucker, tits.
ASSHOLE.
ASSHOLE.
I shouldn't like this book. It does things that I've disliked other modern writers for doing, authors like Adam Levin or Dave Eggers. I don't like excessive cleverness that smells like pretension. I think a story can usually stand on its own without illustrations of staplers, and if it cannot then it probably wasn't a very good story to start. I don't care for bells and whistles - they're loud and distracting and jarring.
Kurt Vonnegut might be the Godfather of Bells and Whistles. And, by god, he ...more
Kurt Vonnegut might be the Godfather of Bells and Whistles. And, by god, he ...more
I'm confused.
I was thrown (or more accurately, threw myself) into Kurt Vonnegut's work blindly and completely unprepared. After finishing Breakfast of Champions , a book about nothing in particular and which doesn't necessarily lead anywhere, I was left with the distinct impression that I am yet unable to fully grasp and appreciate Vonnegut's humor and satire. In a less than shocking twist of fate however, I happen to love books that challenge me, and I've already formulated a plan to devour Vo ...more
I was thrown (or more accurately, threw myself) into Kurt Vonnegut's work blindly and completely unprepared. After finishing Breakfast of Champions , a book about nothing in particular and which doesn't necessarily lead anywhere, I was left with the distinct impression that I am yet unable to fully grasp and appreciate Vonnegut's humor and satire. In a less than shocking twist of fate however, I happen to love books that challenge me, and I've already formulated a plan to devour Vo ...more
Why Kurt Vonnegut is a genius:
As for the story itself, it was entitled "The Dancing Fool." Like so many Trout stories, it was about a tragic failure to communicate.
Here was the plot: A flying saucer creature named Zog arrived on Earth to explain how wars could be prevented and how cancer could be cured. He brought the information from Margo, a planet where the natives conversed by means of farts and tap dancing.
Zog landed at night in Connecticut. He had no sooner touched down than he saw a hous ...more
As for the story itself, it was entitled "The Dancing Fool." Like so many Trout stories, it was about a tragic failure to communicate.
Here was the plot: A flying saucer creature named Zog arrived on Earth to explain how wars could be prevented and how cancer could be cured. He brought the information from Margo, a planet where the natives conversed by means of farts and tap dancing.
Zog landed at night in Connecticut. He had no sooner touched down than he saw a hous ...more
| topics | posts | views | last activity | |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1001 könyv, amit ...: Kurt Vonnegut: Bajnokok reggelije (2020. február) | 25 | 27 | Feb 04, 2020 11:05AM | |
| Reading 1001: Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. | 2 | 19 | Dec 27, 2018 03:53AM | |
| Goodreads Librari...: Correction | 1 | 9 | Dec 24, 2018 01:53PM | |
| Lit Chicks Podcast: Breakfast of Champions | 1 | 5 | May 28, 2018 06:58AM | |
| Mentor Texts: Mentor Texts | 1 | 9 | Dec 11, 2017 05:17AM | |
| Goodreads Librari...: Edition information challenged | 4 | 28 | May 12, 2017 12:11PM |
Readers also enjoyed
Kurt Vonnegut, Junior was an American novelist, satirist, and most recently, graphic artist. He was recognized as New York State Author for 2001-2003.
He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked as a journali ...more
He was born in Indianapolis, later the setting for many of his novels. He attended Cornell University from 1941 to 1943, where he wrote a column for the student newspaper, the Cornell Daily Sun. Vonnegut trained as a chemist and worked as a journali ...more
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