Breakfast of Champions by Kurt Vonnegut Jr. (1973, Hardcover)

Kurt Vonnegut takes his readers on a wild, science-fiction-like ride in his novel "Breakfast of Champions": the title a reference to a martini. Sprinkled with a healthy dose Vonnegut's drawings, and his insistence on injecting himself into the narrative to as a guide and to move the story arc along, the tale is a fast and funny read.

Vonnegut's alter-ego, Kilgore Trout, the down-on-his-luck science fiction writer, has been invited to give a talk at the grand opening of a center for the arts in Midland City, Ohio by his number one fan, Eliot Rosewater. From that launching point, the book follows its main character- Dwayne Hoover, a business wheeler-dealer in the town of Midland City- down the proverbial rabbit hole into madness, a condition brought on by the work of Kilgore Trout. As Dwayne cracks, then crumbles, "Breakfast of Champions" coolly spotlights the effects his dementia has on the cast of characters surrounding him. Vonnegut gives us a glimpse into Trout's- and, of course, his- psyche with Trout's tombstone inscription: "We are healthy only to the extent that our ideas are humane."

"Breakfast of Champions" is a slippery, lucid, darkly humorous romp through the America into which it was written. The book contains less of a plot than a series of events that come crashing together like orchestral cymbals at the climax of the opus, but it is vehicle enough to carry Vonnegut's unique opinions on America, sex, war, love, and all of his other pet topics. At the same time, that, of all things, is what makes this book enjoyable to read.