Breakfast of Champions

I finished Breakfast of Champions the other day. It's one of those classic Vonneguts about a main character who is flat-out crazy and whose reasons for being so crazy are slowly revealed throughout the novel. It's actually an incredibly profound book that I would recommend to anyone. One literary device that Vonnegut uses a lot is integrating himself into his books as a character. I'm pretty sure that with any other writer this device would fail miserably. But there is something so ominous and funny and creepy in the way Vonnegut does it.

I've now lent it to someone so I can't give you any quotes but he says at one point that this book was his 50th Birthday present to himself. He says that he figured out that he preferred all characters to carry equal weight in the story; so he always includes comprehensive background stories whenever he introduces a character who would in any other novel be viewed as a minor character. I was trying to explain the storyline to my friend Van who has now borrowed it and I realized that the plot could only be explained as "Dwayne Hoover goes crazy after meeting Kilgore Trout". There's so much detail about characters' lives and so much psychology going on that the story doesn't get much more complicated than that. But it doesn't matter! It's one of the most interesting and thought-provoking novels I've read in a long time.

I'm still reading Herriot and I have to say I am now getting hooked. It's set up that each chapter is a tiny little story about his apprenticeship with his boss Siegfried Farnon. There are funny ones, sad ones, exciting ones, you name it. This book is such a feel-good that it has been a balm of sorts in light of some family stuff that's going on in my life. It would be a balm anyway for the crazy hectic lives we in big cities tend to lead. But especially when things are extra crazy a book like this can ground you and lift you up at the same time. No rush to get through this one; every little story goes for miles with me.

This is my last post from Montreal for a while as I am going to Europe for 2 months starting tonight. I also realized as I was in the metro yesterday that I won't be able to read on any metros in Europe for the first part of my trip because I'll be in small towns without subway systems! It's going to be weird...