Christie's Staff Pick 4/25/2010

Breakfast of Champions

By Kurt Vonnegut, Jr.

For his fiftieth birthday, Kurt Vonnegut wrote Breakfast of Champions in order to clear out all of the junk in his head. It is the story of the meeting of two men, Kilgore Trout, a failed science fiction writer and Dwayne Hoover, a rich car salesman on the brink of insanity.

Anyone who knows me will probably say that I have a bit of an obsession with Kurt Vonnegut, to the point that I have a tattoo dedicated to Breakfast of Champtons on the inside of my right arm. What I love so much about this book is that Vonnegut takes a seemingly ridiculous story and reveals deep truths about human nature and American culture. One word of warning: This book is a lot funnier if you have read Vonnegut before. I would suggest reading Cat's Cradle or Slaughterhouse-Five before reading this gem of a book.