One of them was a science-fiction write named Kilgore Trout. He was a nobody at the time, and he supposed his life was over. He was mistaken. As a consequence of the meeting, he became one of the most beloved and respected human beings in history.
The man he met was an automobile dealer, a Pontiac dealer named Dwayne Hoover. Dwayne Hoover was on the brink of going insane."
- Kurt Vonnegut, Breakfast of Champions
This odd book one stands out from the rest of Vonnegut's oeuvre for a few reasons:
- Depressing. Not that Vonnegut's writing contains a lot of positive feelings, but BoC feels particularly grim. Part of it is his meta-commentary about the state of his own life, including his pessimism about writing: "Once I understood what was making America such a dangerous, unhappy nation of people who had nothing to do with real life, I resolved to shun storytelling. ... I would bring chaos to order, instead, which I think I have done. ... It is hard to adapt to chaos, but it can be done. I am living proof of that: it can be done. "
- Drawings. There are a LOT of Vonnegut's drawings in this novel. Too many, in fact. A few make sense but I found so many of them distracting.
- Racism. I don't think Vonnegut is a racist; quite the opposite in fact. Regardless, it's extremely difficult to read his continued use of the N-word - every time it appears it completely took me out of the story.
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