Mr Breakfast: A Novel

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Carroll’s prose… imprints deep into your psyche, amplifying the beauty and absurdity of everyday life while highlighting the metaphysical in the seemingly mundane.” — The Los Angeles Review of Books Another winner from one of our best fabulists… the novel thrilled me; it made me reflect on art, love, choices, and regrets; it left me with tears in the corners of my eyes and a smile on my face. What more can a reader ask for?” — TOR.com Muslim Iraqis celebrate Ramadan the entire ninth month of the Muslim year. During Ramadan, no food or water may be consumed from sunrise to sunset. Muslims believe fasting makes them stronger in their faith and helps them identify with the poor and hungry.

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. Hey traveling breakfast lover! Have you been to this part of the world? Do you have a breakfast experience you'd like to share. Facebook me and I'll put it in the article.

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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. This book is so fascinating and compelling. It looks at the choices we make and the impacts those choices have on ourselves and others. It’s also a story about connection, love, and finding what—and whom—you care about. Obviously there’s some suspension of belief that’s necessary, but I just loved this.

Graham Patterson is a stand-up comedian, but his career never seems to have gotten the traction he’d hoped for. He needs to figure out what his next steps are, so he buys a car and plans to drive cross-country, and hopes that inspiration will strike and lead him to success. In Iraq, it's customary for the mother of a new bride to bring breakfast (usually Kahi) to the home of her new son-in-law the morning after the wedding. Jonathan Carroll is an extraordinary writer. His books are odd and uncanny. I cannot relax while reading him as he creates a sense of unease with normally perceived reality that always leaves me with heightened senses, hyper aware. In this state, his writing always has a profound effect on me. Sometimes it has moved me to profound delight. Often it has made me profoundly uncomfortable (in ways both good and bad). In one book, (After Silence) he so profoundly angered me that I almost stopped reading him. But I couldn’t stay away from his uncanny, slipstream worlds. I read Mr. Breakfast in three enthralled sittings, but it’s not flawless. Carroll is in love with our world and its wonders, but that general enthusiasm and genial wisdom sometimes shade into schmaltz or twee (Witness the meet-cute involving a fossil pterosaur in a museum). Lines intended to be profound (“I’ve never been able to see or feel, to create from the middle of my soul”) occasionally seem sophomoric, and the descriptive writing once in a while seems half-hearted (The tattoo is “insanely intricate”). These complaints, however, hardly detract from the book. The novel thrilled me; it made me reflect on art, love, choices, and regrets; it left me with tears in the corners of my eyes and a smile on my face. What more can a reader ask for?

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Mi sono sentita in dovere di evidenziare e riportare qui le frasi che hanno catturato maggiormente la mia attenzione, e vi spiego il perché. Breakfast in Iraq is typically a light meal. Egg dishes are fairly common. Breakfast cereals are not.