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Breakfast of Champions
- Narrated by: John Malkovich
- Length: 6 hrs and 27 mins
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Breakfast of Champions
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Summary
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 which Vonnegut conceded frequently in interviews and which 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.)
PLEASE NOTE: When you purchase this title, the accompanying reference material will be available in your My Library section along with the audio.
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What listeners say about Breakfast of Champions
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Kindle Customer
- 15-01-19
Best reading I've heard
The performance by John Malkovich is by far the best I've heard so far. The book is fun and odd, although it hasn't aged very well (comes off as racist or misogynistic at times), but the writing is brilliant. It contains drawings, which Malkovich narrates nicely (I didn't miss seeing them). Overall: would definitely recommend!
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- _AL_X
- 16-10-16
malkovich is fantastic
A perfect fit for vonnegut, malkovich's delivery feels tailor made for the narrative and describing the illustrations. A great way to digest this book, recommended.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance1 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- JofusPocus
- 09-01-21
Abandoned in favour of the paperback version
I really like Malkovich as an actor but I find his narration of this book stilted and annoying. Am returning the book and will buy the paperback instead.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story4 out of 5 stars
- Cliff Moyce
- 11-07-20
Great performance
A funny and clever post-modernist novel that spears many of the attitudes and behaviours of 60’s / 70’s America. Enhanced by a great performance from John Malkovich.
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3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Blondie
- 06-10-18
A great ride!
Don't expect a conventional narrative or narrator but the language and ideas are a delight, exciting, funny and original. I loved John Malkovic's performance, it suited the book perfectly, although I missed out seeing the drawings.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall3 out of 5 stars
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Performance4 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- PJ
- 15-09-22
A wild ride
Enjoyed this book, but had to get through it is short sessions as there’s just so much going on. The first Vonnegut novel I’ve listened to, and I’ll probably be back for more.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Mark Avey
- 18-11-21
I've no idea what that was, but I loved it
WTH did I just read? I'm baffled, amused, shocked and totally confused. I'm really not quite sure what that was, but this could well be my new favourite book (although I haven't yet read all Vonnegut's).
And absolutely the best narration of any audio book I've ever had the pleasure of listening to. I wish Malkovich could read all of my books for me.
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1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Isobel Birkinshaw
- 09-08-20
bizzare
very interesting. makes you think about novels and how they are formed. I love how he is a character in his own book.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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- Ronan
- 12-06-17
fantastic voice acting
excellent book, brilliantly read. I love Vonnegut's sad, funny, intelligent observations about the absurd human race.
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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- Anonymous User
- 10-12-23
Original, and Malkovich is excellent
Must listen! A serpentine tale of self reflection and surrealism. I’m just writing words to get beyond the 15 word minimum criteria for submission. Don’t listen to me, but rather give this book a listening to! Sláinte
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