Mr. Breakfast
By Jonathan Carroll
- Release Date: 2023-01-17
- Genre: Contemporary
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.
Reviews
Strong Beginning, mixed on the ending
3By gdub2019The ending isn’t bad just not as strong as the first two thirds.What Life Would You Choose….
4By kammbiamh“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.
