Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut

I’ve been a fan of Kurt Vonnegut since high school.  As soon as I finished Slaughterhouse-Five, I raced to the library (OK, full disclosure: it was a Chapters store) and picked up as many of his novels as I could afford.  I read them voraciously until I entered university and no longer had time for leisure reading. 

However, the prodigal Vonnegut fan has returned!  I’ve just finished Breakfast of Champions, and I think I’ll carry on with a reunion tour, of sorts.

Breakfast of Champions is the story of Kilgore Trout, a failed science fiction writer, and the effect that one of his stories has on Dwayne Hoover, a used car salesman who is losing his mind.  Their lives converge – with heartbreaking and poignant results - when they meet at an arts festival in a city otherwise devoid of culture.      

Die-hard Vonnegut fans will surely remember that Kilgore Trout had appeared in several of Vonnegut’s novels, prior to Breakfast of Champions.  So, the fact that Vonnegut actually writes himself into the narrative, in order to free Kilgore Trout, is both funny and fantastic.  It’s also quite moving, since Trout and Vonnegut bear such strong resemblance to one another.

Vonnegut’s own drawings are interspersed throughout, and for that reason alone this book is worth checking out.  But there are so many others!  If you’ve never read a Vonnegut novel, start today!  They are humourous, insightful, cynical and a touch melancholy.  Vonnegut’s musings about American culture are as relevant today as when they were written – most of them several decades ago.

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