I finished Breakfast of Champions – the Kurt Vonnegut novel, not Caitlyn’s favorite cereal in a former gender. The title comes from the phrase a cocktail waitress within the story says every time she serves a martini. Kurt Vonnegut morphs the narration of the story from third person, slowly to that of him being the narrator by the last chapter. He is also presented as a sort of Microcosmic God to the characters within. Despite often moving the story haphazardly through space and time, the story is pretty easy to follow. This is more a testament to the author’s story-telling prowess rather than the simplicity of his tales. After I read Slaughterhouse Five, I could not believe how easily he moved his characters to other planets and eras. That was a very complex story, but it was incredibly easy to read. Most authors would lose their audience if they attempted such abrupt setting and character changes. I really do not know how to categorize his work. It has comic, dramatic, and science fiction elements, but it does not really fit into any of these categories. His stories tell so easily, in fact, that I wonder if he had the ability to view the goings-on of some alternate universe and he was simply documenting it. I have Player Piano, which I will get to soon, but I am going to likely read Desolation Angels (Kerouac) – another garage bookshelf find, or Foundations (Asimov) next.
