Review of Breakfast of Champions

I picked up this short book as a Kindle Daily Deal for a buck, so thought I’d give it a read.

Breakfast of Champions features Vonnegut’s alter-ego Kilgore Trout as he journeys to an arts festival. He is destined to meet a disillusioned car salesman. At the fateful meeting, Kilgore triggers a psychotic episode in which the salesman thinks everybody in the world is a robot, except for him.

This simple plot is a vehicle for Vonnegut’s typically biting satire, and for those who haven’t read Vonnegut yet, is an excellent primer for a trip into his twisted mind. Peppered with childish drawings, Vonnegut tries his best to make the reader uncomfortable while stoking the absurd with his wry humour.

My only criticism is that this novel is not nearly as fleshed out as the excellent Cat’s Cradle and Slaughterhouse Five. Overall, I preferred the experience of diving deeper into Vonnegut’s world in these two novels. This short read, however, is a tantalizing treat that leaves you wanting more.

Steve Jobs bio review

Cover from Whole Earth Catalog

Cover from Whole Earth Catalog

This isn’t a book for fanboys who are looking for a insider’s view of Apple or the tech industry. The author, Walter Isaacson, is very much an outsider looking in. As such, he granted Steve Jobs a cool respect, but was never drawn in by Steve’s Reality Distortion Field.

As a result, this biography is extremely well researched. Isaacson gives us a measured, balanced narrative of Steve’s life. The writing is gushing when describing Steve’s many accomplishments, and rightly so. On the other hand, Steve’s dark side is portrayed with frankness, but at times tinged with a sense of self-righteousness that shows the reader Isaacson wasn’t able to truly understand his subject, even after two years of interviews. As open as Steve was to engaging with others, he was also intensely private, as befitting his dualistic, black-or-white nature.

Overall, I’d say this book is a compelling and fascinating read, not just for Apple acolytes, but for anybody interested in the man who created (and resurrected) the most valuable company in the world today.

Copyright 2012 Antoine Giraud