
Breakfast of Champions
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Narrated by:
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John Malkovich
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By:
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Kurt Vonnegut
Audie Award Finalist, Best Male Narrator, 2016
Breakfast of Champions (1973) provides frantic, scattershot satire and a collage of Vonnegut's obsessions. His recurring cast of characters and American landscape was perhaps the most controversial of his canon; it was felt by many at the time to be a disappointing successor to Slaughterhouse-Five, which had made Vonnegut's literary reputation.
The core of the novel is Kilgore Trout, a familiar character very deliberately modeled on the science fiction writer Theodore Sturgeon (1918-1985), a fact that Vonnegut conceded frequently in interviews and that was based upon his own occasional relationship with Sturgeon. Here Kilgore Trout is an itinerant wandering from one science fiction convention to another; he intersects with the protagonist, Dwayne Hoover (one of Vonnegut's typically boosterish, lost, and stupid mid-American characters), and their intersection is the excuse for the evocation of many others, familiar and unfamiliar, dredged from Vonnegut's gallery. The central issue is concerned with intersecting and apposite views of reality, and much of the narrative is filtered through Trout, who is neither certifiably insane nor a visionary writer but can pass for either depending upon Dwayne Hoover's (and Vonnegut's) view of the situation.
America, when this novel was published, was in the throes of Nixon, Watergate, and the unraveling of our intervention in Vietnam; the nation was beginning to fragment ideologically and geographically, and Vonnegut sought to cram all of this dysfunction (and a goofy, desperate kind of hope, the irrational comfort given through the genre of science fiction) into a sprawling narrative whose sense, if any, is situational, not conceptual. Reviews were polarized; the novel was celebrated for its bizarre aspects and became the basis of a Bruce Willis movie adaptation whose reviews were not nearly so polarized. (Most critics hated it.)
Download the accompanying reference guide.©1973 Kurt Vonnegut (P)2015 Audible, Inc.Go Behind the Scenes with John Malkovich
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Featured Article: 70+ Unforgettable Kurt Vonnegut Quotes
Kurt Vonnegut had an extremely productive career, penning everything from plays to short stories to full-length nonfiction. Drawing on his experiences of war, life, and love, Vonnegut’s powerful messages were delivered so creatively—and often quite satirically—ensuring that they stood the test of time. This assortment of Kurt Vonnegut quotes is just a glimpse of the gems found throughout the works of this great author.
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John Malkovich hates everyone
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Poor narration
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Not best Vonnegut, not great performance
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What did you love best about Breakfast of Champions?
This is classic, laugh-out-loud/bemoan-humanity's-fate Vonnegut, and the reading is fantastic. Don't let anyone tell you differently. If you love Vonnegut, this is a must-have audio book. And to think I almost didn't purchase it based on some of the negative comments here - cheech. How can spending time with Kilgore Trout not be amazing? “The waitress brought me another drink. She wanted to light my hurricane lamp again. I wouldn't let her."Can you see anything in the dark, with your sunglasses on?" she asked me."The big show is inside my head," I said.”Who was your favorite character and why?
TroutHave you listened to any of John Malkovich’s other performances before? How does this one compare?
No, but I love his reading of this bookDid you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?
BothAny additional comments?
And so it goesThis is incredible
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5 stars for Malcovich
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Malkovich is great
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Beware old racist ideas!
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Glad to be done with the story.
Vonnegut certainly has a vivid and sick imagination. He must have forgotten to take his meds on the days he wrote this book.
WEIRD
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Absolutely crazy and amazing at the same time.
As Kurt loses his mind
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The story explores ideas deemed great and insignificant with no discrimination. Malchovich narrates in such a way as to state every thing as matter of fact. No event or detail is given greater importance than the other, and this is in keeping with the philosophy of the novel.
Deadpan Cynicism
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