The Skinny
Writer Kilgore Trout is horrified, as he should be, that people are reading his fiction as non-fiction.
Nutritional Value
It’s been so long since I’ve read a picture book. There’s an illustration on almost every page of this chapter, and I definitely was not expecting that when I picked up the book.
Whoever said that a picture is worth a thousand words was maybe stretching a little. These drawings were worth about 175. Maybe even 190.
I’m probably scoring them low because the words in the book are amazing enough on their own. Kurt Vonnegut writes harsh truths about American society in such an easy-going way that even though the truths themselves are painful, reading them is painless.
Was Kurt Vonnegut a time traveler? Because everything he’s written in this chapter about American society is as or even more relevant today as it was when he wrote it in the 70’s. He talks about overpopulation, depletion of resources, threat of nuclear bombs, lies taught in educational systems, and how the rich don’t care about the poor.
If he was a time traveler, I hope he wrote the winning numbers for next week’s lottery in the second chapter.
Freezer Burn
I’m pretty sure social media didn’t exist four decades ago, but Vonnegut is pretty masterful at live tweeting his thoughts. No matter how truthful, hilarious, and well-written this chapter was, it felt like I was reading his social media page and not a novel.
Lingering Aftertaste
I’m expecting the rest of the book to be written in this live tweeting way, complete with his version of Instagram pictures.
My bet is on the Kilgore Trout character becoming a celebrity that everyone treats as a guru, and he goes insane trying to tell the public that he’s a fiction writer, not a self-help author.
Taste Test Verdict
I’m definitely looking forward to another scoop of this. My inner child is doing cartwheels in anticipation of seeing more pictures on every page.
Memorable Morsel
Vonnegut is a master of the burn.
The teachers told the children that this was when their continent was discovered by human beings. Actually, millions of human beings were already living full and imaginative lives on the continent in 1492. That was simply the year in which sea pirates began to cheat and rob and kill them.
Get Breakfast of Champions: A Novel
Gwen thinks that it’s as close to magic as humans can get when a blank Word document is filled with groups of letters, and those groups of letters turn into lines, and those lines turn into a whole new world.
When Gwen isn’t reading or writing, she’s drinking boba milk tea and singing along to Steven Universe. You should sing along with her.