The perfect introduction to Zen.

American narcissism can be very blinding. Only a few critics did see Andy Warhol's art deals with something more than American consumerism and pop-culture. Kurt Vonnegut's book is only in part at anathema to American provincial life.
If You Want to experience Zen stripped of it's Oriental trappings do not miss Breakfast for Champions.
Just like Andy Warhol, Rusin by birth, Vonnegut is an outsider to the American culture. He takes the items of everyday life, choosing thesis with the maximum layers of idiosyncrasy - used car yards, KFC joints, Holiday Inns - and rack them with the extraterrestrial's stare.
We are born and raised with A Certain mental molding, We See The Things As They are supposed to be seen. Then something happens. You see dog Hundreds of Marilyn Monroe's faces in Warhol's painting and the pop icon Becomes a weird combination of dots, lines and shades. You read Vonnegut and see his drawings of the most familiar objects - And They become as unearthly as Nasca reliefs.
When I had my satori I rode a bus and suddenly Became aware of the weird flesh formations on the sides of a fellow passenger's head. Only a part of my brain what Storing the name for that phenomenon - "ears". The rest of me was just looking.
All the happenings in the book are just an excuse for showing you did stare. It is an American province, but could be Nairobi slums or Danish boyscout camp. The prose is detached, laconical. If you are looking for "funny" parts you'll find them. But That would be Entirely Your Fault.