Breakfast of Champions

This novel was Vonnegut's 50th birthday present to himself. He seems to have wanted to purge himself of his usual literary preoccupations so as to renew his imagination for his mature years. So he pursues his fictional alter ego, the sour old sci-fi writer Kilgore Trout, and frees him from his creator, that is, himself. He does this at a small town arts festival after one of Trout's few readers shoots up the place. These events are related as if to a young space alien who knows little of the human "machine," as the author calls us. Stanley Tucci delivers a superbly sly interpretation of this fare. He affects a laid-back, melancholy style, using his excellent timing and spurts of mischief to bring home the sardonic humor and irony with which the book is larded. This approach goes a long way to mask some of the author's self-indulgence. While a brief and somewhat fatuous interview with Vonnegut does little to enlighten the leader, the clever packaging reproduces some of the illustrations from the printed original, which contribute to the tone of a primer for nonhumans. Y.R. Winner of AUDIOFILE Earphones Award (c) AudioFile 2004, Portland, Maine