Book Review: Breakfast of Champions

I finally finished reading Vonnegut's Breakfast of Champions after about two and a half months. It should have been a very quick read, but the book just didn't command my attention. I've never read any Vonnegut before, so naturally I was excited to see what was in store for me. I was rather disappointed, I must say. I will offer that this could be partly attributable to the fact that the book I read immediately prior to this one, Jitterbug Perfume, instantly assumed the title of "best book I've ever read"; it's hard to follow that up. Sure, B-fast of Champs had me laughing at times, wincing at others, and occasionally admiring Vonnegut's boldness of statements and strange plot twists (for example, he writes himself into the book, as himself, the author amidst the story he is telling) - which, to be fair, are reactions that are better than apathy. But all in all, this book of alleged profound social commentary just wasn't all that engaging; it wasn't until the very end that anything interesting started happening.

All that being said, I'm not going to give up on Vonnegut. I've never read his more famous books, so I'll give him another chance. But for now, next up in my queue is Voltiare's Candide. John recommended/lent this one to me as it is one of his favorite books and, due my my fondness of Jitterbug Perfume, he thought Candide would offer similarly exciting adventures. I'll let you know how it goes!