Book Thoughts: Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut

Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut
My rating: 4 of 5 stars

I believe this is the third book by Vonnegut that I've read, and one thing always remains true about each of them - they are wonderfully weird. I imagine that leaves readers to be divided up into two camps - one that likes/loves Vonnegut (and he does have a cult-ish following to a certain extent) and one that can't take the "weirdness" of his writing.

I tend to fall in the camp of liking Vonnegut, both in spite of and because of the weirdness. Often, when you read someone who's writing style is less traditional than most, it can be a slog to get through - but you read it because you sense the deeper meaning of what you're reading. With Vonnegut, it's non-traditional writing and structure, and intimate almost to an extreme, but it reads so quickly and flows so well that you have to slow yourself down to wade into the deeper meanings present in the book.

And with Vonnegut, there is always layers upon layers of meaning. This book, as unusual as the plot and characters are, provides commentary, insight, and provocations for reflections on a myriad of topics - ethics, the nature of reality, the power of ideas to inspire and poison, environmentalism, U.S. foreign policy, societal triumph and decay, propoganda, and human nature. Vonnegut's gift for deadpan allows him to use the absurd to bring these issues up for reflection, disarming the reader, and thus, allowing the reader to come to the topics free of preconceived positions and ideology. It is truly what makes Vonnegut great.

For me, the most intoxicating takeaway deals in the realm of metaphysics and the ideas presented on the nature of our reality, and the role of ideas. In this fashion, "Breakfast of Champions" is similar to "Slaughterhouse Five," another great Vonnegut work. Yet, as with anything he writes, its a book that I imagine I will feel different about weeks from now, as its not a book that is easily forgotten or dismissed. It will stay in your consciousness, forcing you to think about both the absurd and the mundane, and how they relate.

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