Mr. Breakfast
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3.8 • 19 Ratings
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- $14.99
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- $14.99
Publisher Description
From one of the great modern masters of the fantastic, “A beautiful, brilliant, meditation on art, love, inspiration and what makes life worthwhile."-- Neil Gaiman
"[Carroll's] prose is spare, polished and quick-moving, sometimes lightly comic, always immensely engaging... Mr. Breakfast is pure pleasure to read. It will surprise you, make you laugh and scare you — and then, just when you think it’s over, add several extra twists." - Michael Dirda, The Washington Post
Graham Patterson’s life has hit a dead end. His career as a comedian is failing. The love of his life recently broke up with him and he literally has no idea what to do next. With nothing to lose, he buys a new car and hits the road, planning to drive across country and hopefully figure out his next moves before reaching California.
But along the way Patterson does something his old self would never have even considered: he gets tattooed by a brilliant tattoo artist in North Carolina. The decision sets off a series of extraordinary events that changes his life forever in ways he never could have imagined. Among other things, Patterson is gifted with the ability to see in real time three different lives that are available to him. The choice is his: The life he is leading right now, or two very different ones. In all of them there is love or fame and of course danger because once he has chosen, there is no telling what will happen next.
Mr. Breakfast is a dazzling, absorbing and deeply moving novel about the choices that we have to confront and face, confirming Jonathan Carroll’s status as one of our greatest and most imaginative storytellers.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This self-congratulatory contemporary fantasy from Carroll (Bathing the Lion) follows comedian-turned-photographer Graham Patterson as he explores the alternate directions his life could take. While fleeing from his comedy career on a road trip across the U.S., Patterson impulsively gets a tattoo from Anna Mae Collins. Soon thereafter, he starts to see "mirror versions" of himself, first witnessing himself get kidnapped. Collins conveniently returns to explain that the "Breakfast Tattoo" Patterson selected gives the bearer the ability to observe, and ultimately choose between, three different versions of his own life. Carroll takes pains to assure the reader that the protagonist's jokes are funny and his photographs magnificent, and the narrative frequently stalls to explain the message of a scene through heavy-handed metaphor, leaving little room for imagination or interpretation. Together with a stable of female characters almost universally concerned with motherhood, and disabled characters built on tired stereotypes (a "spooky" blind person, a murderous schizophrenic, and a burdensome autistic child), it makes for a turgid reading experience. While the alternate realities deliver some genuine surprises alongside the occasional heartfelt meditation on the randomness of life and the futility in trying to control it, the whole is too trite to be very thought provoking. All but Carroll's most devoted fans can skip this.
Customer Reviews
Great story with an unexpected and abrupt ending
I enjoyed the read, but the ending was unexpected, abrupt, and seemed to leave pieces of the story unresolved.
What Life Would You Choose….
“People want life to be their friend. Some even expect or believe they deserve it. But I think of life only as a companion, and an unpredictable one at that. If it were my friend, life would be hurting or disappointing me all the time. But if it’s only a companion, we’re just traveling the same road together. I’m happy when it’s in a good or generous mood, but I don’t expect anything from it.”
This quote is incredibly perceptive about life. I have never thought about living life in such a manner. Jonathan Carroll writes a story that augments this philosophical outlook in his latest novel, Mr. Breakfast.
Mr. Breakfast tells the story of Graham Patterson, a failed comedian that recently ended a relationship with the love of his life and has reached a crossroads in his life. Patterson decides to take a cross country trip to California to figure what is he doing to do next. Along the trip, he stops in a small North Carolina town where he decides to get a tattoo. The tattoo artist explains the tattoo has a special ability to show the owner of the tattoo alternative lives they could have taken instead of their current life.
Patterson is shown three alternative lives and has the opportunity to visit each one before deciding on which life he wants to live in for good. The lives are a manifestation of his deepest desires and will illuminate how we tend to write the story of our lives through the power of the imagination.
Carroll uses fantasy and surrealism to reveal that life is better as a companion than being a best friend and understanding that our choices can cause outcomes that we could have never expected. I’m glad I read a novel like this to start off 2023 and it is good reminder that life is what you make it.
Strong Beginning, mixed on the ending
The ending isn’t bad just not as strong as the first two thirds.