Breakfast of Champions CD

Rating:
Summary: Forgettable yet entertaining
Review: This is the third Vonnegut I have read and I still can't figure out if I like the guy or not.

It is a story(or is it?) about two insane lunatics who eventually cross paths. One of these men is a science fiction writer named Kilgore Trout who can only get his work published as filler for pornography magazines. The other is a wealthy widower who goes on a rampage because of Trout at the end of the story. I'm not giving anything away by telling you this because Vonnegut tells you himself at the begining of the book.

The book is quick and simple to read, vulgar and laugh-out-loud funny. It features crude drawings by Vonnegut and introduces many of its male characters by revealing the length and width of their penises. It certainly is entertaining in a Farlly brothers kind of way but is it literature as many regard it? I guess it could be a judgement on our culture but I certainly don't think he deserves the same respect as Thomas Hardy or Mark Twain. His books really don't stay with me like Hardy's or Twain's do. The only time I really recall them is when I see them sitting on my book shelf and think,

Rating:
Summary: farting and tap dancing
Review: This was an odd book. The author introduces himself as a character in his book about 2/3 of the way through and gives away the ending to his own story. Bizarre to say the least, and at first glance, I was inclined to think of it as a cheap narrative device, particularly after reading Cat's Cradle, which was a fantastic story. However, I came to realise that the author *was* a part of the story, offering his views and emotions on subjects as widely-varying as American intervention in wars overseas (he might as well have been writing about Iraq), death of family members, insanity, one's mortality, sex. And so on. The author is himself a part of the story with much to add on these topics, but he relegates himself to a secondary role behind Kilgore Trout and Dwayne Hoover.

The most notable character to me, though, was Zog, the farting and tap dancing space alien. WTF?


Rating:
Summary: A dying planet never seemed like so much fun
Review: 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 Slaughter House 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.