The story is definitely odd, and it’s sprinkled with lots of Vonnegut’s artwork. Unfortunately, the story kind of lost me. Not that I couldn’t figure out what was going on in the plot, but rather that I wasn’t entirely sure of its point. It was definitely funny at times and insightful once or twice, but mainly it just left me wondering if I was missing something. Vonnegut has done that to me before, but usually there’s some other nugget of humor or insight that I can take out of his work. This one was a little tougher to grasp.

So, for Vonnegut, not his best work. For a book in general, it’s not bad, especially if you like humor and goofy illustrations. It’s definitely a quick read. I think I finished in 3 days. If you haven’t checked out some of his other stuff that I’ve reviewed, you may want to start there. According to his Wikipedia entry, in his book Palm Sunday he grades his performance on each of his novels. He gave Breakfast of Champions a “C”. I really enjoyed the work that he graded highly, so maybe I should listen to his reviews and pick up God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater or Mother Night the next time I’m in a Vonnegut mood.

2.5/5

Side note: A reader pointed out that the movie 2081, based on Vonnegut’s short story Harrison Bergeron, was released on DVD this month. Thanks!

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The passages are summarized by the book’s title. Vonnegut feels like he is lost in the modern world and is dumbfounded that it can be running the way it is. Through it all, he doesn’t come across as “the crotchety old man who doesn’t want anything to change” but rather as “the intelligent old man who thinks his people are making some poor life decisions.” Despite my love for technology, he has a particularly interesting passage on his disdain for it and his fear that it’s removing human interaction from our daily lives. There is an important sense of urgency and hope in his writing that is directed toward my generation, which I found particularly insightful:

I apologize to all of you who are the same age as my grandchildren. And many of you reading this are the same age as my grandchildren. They, like you, are being royally shafted and lied to by our Baby Boomer corporations and government. Yes, this planet is in a terrible mess. But it has always been a mess. There have never been any “Good Old Days,” there have just been days. And as I say to my grandchildren, “Don’t look at me. I just got here.” (p. 130-131)

I think it’s important for the members of my generation to remember that we can change the world. Maybe it’s not a great idea to demonize the Baby Boomers, but it’s important to acknowledge and understand the mistakes of yesterday and today so that they can be remedied tomorrow. Change and adaptation are how our culture evolves, and just because the ideals of people currently in power may prevent us from changing the world today doesn’t mean we shouldn’t be planning on changing the world tomorrow.

As you can see, this book is one that will get you thinking. It hits near the top of my favorites of all-time, but it loses a few points for some (perhaps well-founded) cheap jokes at the expense of George W. Bush and Dick Cheney. Don’t get me wrong. I have no problem with critiquing or bashing the Bush administration, but if you’re going to make a joke, it should probably have a broader point. Some of Vonnegut’s didn’t. Still, it definitely one you shouldn’t skip. Go grab a copy today!

4.5/5

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In the first chapter of this book, Vonnegut describes a little bit about his life after the war and why it took him so long to write about such a horrific experience. Using true artistic style, in the rest of the book he chose to tell the tale of a fictional character, Billy Pilgrim, a soldier whose story overlaps with that of Vonnegut’s own. In fact, Vonnegut even makes a few brief appearances in the book.

Anyone looking for a book about war and battles, however, will be sorely disappointed. Most of this book is about the life of Billy Pilgrim both before and after the war. The twist is that Billy has become “unstuck in time.” That means that at random points in the story, Billy time-travels to various points in his own life. He has seen his own birth and death many times over. If that’s not strange enough for you, at one point in his life Billy is captured by aliens from the planet Tralfamadore and placed in a “zoo” of exotic species. He’s returned to Earth after some time, but it’s as though he never left. Fortunately, there’s a lot to be learned from the Tralfamadorians, and those scenes are actually some of my favorites. There’s a particular passage that sticks out in my mind:

The most important thing I learned on Tralfamadore was that when a person dies he only appears to die. He is still very much alive in the past, so it is very silly for people to cry at his funeral. All moments, past, present and future, always have existed, always will exist. The Tralfamadorians can look at all the different moments just that way we can look at a stretch of the Rocky Mountains, for instance. They can see how permanent all the moments are, and they can look at any moment that interests them. It is just an illusion we have here on Earth that one moment follows another one, like beads on a string, and that once a moment is gone it is gone forever.
When a Tralfamadorian sees a corpse, all he thinks is that the dead person is in bad condition in the particular moment, but that the same person is just fine in plenty of other moments. Now, when I myself hear that somebody is dead, I simply shrug and say what the Tralfamadorians say about dead people, which is “So it goes.” [Wikiquote]

While I’m not sure I fully caught on to the prolific “anti-war” theme, I can assure you that this book spoke volumes to me about life in general. It’s one of those books with plenty of quotable passages like the one above that make you stop and think. If you’ve never read it, I suggest you wander over to Amazon and grab a copy. It comes highly recommended.

4.5/5

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The premise in this story is an interesting one. It makes you think about some arguments for “equality.” The premise is reminiscent of Atlas Shrugged for me, although the dystopia was not as fully developed. The story is being made into a (short) film called 2081, which is how I first heard about it. I am a big fan of Vonnegut, so it’s always nice to get to read some of his work. I’m hoping that the film can expand the dystopia and make it more tangible for non-readers. Keep an eye out for it in the future, and read the story today. See the first link for the full text.

4/5

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