Mr Breakfast: A Novel

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You have the opportunity to visit 2 other lives and observe them. The other two lives are lives that you would have had if you had made other choices. You may visit each life only 3 times. When you are ready, you will choose one of the three lives and live it until you die. The moment you decide which you prefer, you will forget you ever had a choice. 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.

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 Carroll works comfortably and confidently within his fantasy and simply tells a good story.” — Complete Review Shortly after Graham’s first encounter with his alternate life, Anna Mae Collins, the mysterious tattooist, shows up to explain the rules: Anyone who receives the “breakfast tattoo” can move at will between three distinct lives by tapping their tattoo and saying a code word. In Graham’s case, this codeword is “Pinecone,” the name of his childhood dog. There are only a limited number of switches that a person can make, and when they at last decide which life they’d like to live, their tattoo will vanish and they will forget about the tattoo and the magic. Anna Mae leaves Graham, who immediately begins his quest.

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Iraqi cuisine is strongly influenced by neighboring countries, Turkey and Iran. One food writer generalized Iraqi meals as "a blend of standard Arabic cuisine with Persian influences and Turkish influence in the north." Cosa faresti se potessi tornare a un preciso momento della tua vita e cambiarla facendo una scelta totalmente diversa? Saresti curioso di sapere come andrebbe a finire? Mi sono sentita in dovere di evidenziare e riportare qui le frasi che hanno catturato maggiormente la mia attenzione, e vi spiego il perché. Carroll] gives readers so much to consider about love, art, disappointment, loss, the wondrous possibilities of life, and the vast unknowables of the universe… This really interesting and weird novel challenges and delights.” — Bookreporter Like what happens after, to his partner, when they break up, what she says, does, her reaction to the whole event. There are so many things about life and living that we don’t know that we really should know, need to know, to make a decision. Even how we are connected to others, which, nearing the end, becomes a big aspect in the book. And, I think, in the end, we all need a little hand, as that is what Patterson gets, to make his choice. After all, we are only human. I won’t say that he didn’t make his decision, just, that, how could he not?

Like many Iraqi breakfast favorites, Gaymer Wa Dibis is often enjoyed from communal trays, with fingers acting as the only utensils. Some Iraqis prefer honey to date syrup. Others might add candied apricot to their Gaymer Wa Dibis. There are even variations with yogurt, olives and cheeses replacing the traditional ingredients. 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. Carroll's blend of magic realism and fantasy and horror is so unique - his books are always weird and emotionally moving and funny and full of bull terriers and little nods to previous books - he's spectacular and everyone should read at least one of his books in their lifetime (any of them).In this report, we concentrate on Iraqi breakfast as it was before foreign military intervention, as it still is when the ingredients are available, and as we hope it will resurface in the very near future. 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. Il protagonista di questo originale romanzo è Graham Patterson, comico non esattamente riuscito, (ex) marito e celebre fotografo, che dopo il divorzio decide di partire per la costa opposta degli USA e andare a far visita a suo fratello. Durante il tragitto, precisamente nella Carolina del Nord, l'auto di Patterson ha un guasto e lui è costretto a fermarsi, arrivando per caso ad essere accolto dalla tatuatrice Anna Mae. Incuriosito dalla strabiliante arte dei disegni di quest'ultima, Patterson decide di farsene uno, quello della colazione. Un semplice tatuaggio all'apparenza, ma che al tocco, pronunciando la parola "Pigna", il nome del suo cane, e "uno", "due" o "tre" a seconda della vita che voleva visionare, lo avrebbe come proiettato nella vita giusta. Patterson poteva scegliere quale delle tre vite voleva vivere. Ma qual era il prezzo da pagare? Like many countries, Iraq's primary breakfast staple is bread. A flat bread known as khubz and an oval-shaped bread loaf called samoon are found individually or in tandem at most meals. At breakfast, bread is enjoyed with butter, jam, honey, cheese, Libna (yogurt with olive oil), date molasses, sesame paste and pretty much everything else available that you can put on bread or dip bread in. Bread also acts as key component in most breakfast recipes that are considered uniquely Iraqi. Carroll is compared with Haruki Murakami almost as often as he’s called a writer’s writer, but the comparison makes intuitive sense. Like Murakami, Carroll is a magical realist, rather than a systematizer or a worldbuilder: The rules of magic and the logic of the supernatural matter less than the mysteries of the heart. Graham Patterson and the people he encounters would be interesting even without the tale’s supernatural appurtenances. Also like Murakami, Carroll has a set of recurring motifs or emblems. Bull terriers are to Carroll what cats are to Murakami, so it’s hardly a surprise when the dog pops in to Mr. Breakfast. As is by now traditional, Films and music are reverently discussed, there’s a brief mention of The Land of Laughs and the protagonist grew up—where else?—in Crane’s View, New York.

What happens on the other side of the door when we close it? Life still goes on, we are just not around to witness it.

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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. I think most of us ask ourselves a universal question: what if? What if I got married earlier/later/never at all? What if I had rejected that job and gone after another? What if I moved there instead of here? What if...? Like Murakami, Brian Eno, or David Lynch, Jonathan Carroll is entirely sui generis, someone whose work is so fresh, weird, and original, it stands in a class of its own. Maybe the most striking thing about this lean, remarkable novel is Carroll’s caffeinated curiosity about everything, his roving eye for everyday wonders, for the effervescent in the banal. Mr. Breakfast is a small book of big ideas, a set of Russian nesting dolls with an entire universe glowing at the center.” —Joe Hill, bestselling author of Heart- Shaped Box