Mr. Breakfast by Jonathan Carroll (book review).

Everyone, at some time in their lives, wonders what would have happened if they had made different decisions at key points in their lives. Would the other choices had led to something better, or worse? That is the concept that Jonathan Carroll is exploring in ‘Mr. Breakfast’.

We come to many forks in our path through life and Carroll’s protagonist, Graham Patterson is no exception. By profession, he is a stand-up comedian but is beginning to realise that he is only mediocre at it. After a particularly dispiriting gig, he decides to give it all up and go and accept that job his successful brother has offered him, but he will take his time getting there. With the money he had left, he bought himself a new car and a camera and set off across the continent. The car broke down. While waiting for it to be fixed, he decided, on the spur of the moment, to get a tattoo, setting off a chain of events. Because the tattoo he had chosen would take two days, he stayed overnight at the home of Anna Mae Collins, the tattoo artist. While there, he took a photo of her mother’s arm lacing a bowl of soup on the table.

Later, Graham is told that because he picked that tattoo, he can eavesdrop on two of his other possible lives and then can choose which one he prefers. Each of those lives branches off at a pivotal moment. Continuing on his present path, he will become a well-known photographer, limited edition prints selling for large sums of money. Especially popular are the initial image of the hand with the soup bowl and a deserted diner called ‘Mr Breakfast’ where he had his first experience of an alternative timeline.

Once, near the start of his career as a comedian, a friend had told him that to succeed, he would have to change his image and tell more risqué jokes. In one of his other lives, Graham did that and the tattoo allows him to find out what that life would have been like. Another turning point in his life was his break-up with Ruth, the love of his life. They parted because he didn’t want children and she did. He is able to see what life would have been like if he hadn’t been so entrenched about the issue.

Anna Mae tells him that he can choose one of the options. To help him make up his mind, he meets a couple others who also had the tattoo. Ultimately, like so much in real life, the path he chooses will come down to circumstances and what he subconsciously already knows. Graham has the opportunity to explore and find out what his life might have been like if his decisions had been different. The rest of us will never have that luxury, only imagination.

Carroll is a skilful writer and tends to mix the surreal into his novels. This one doesn’t disappoint and is perhaps less confusing than some of his other books.

Pauline Morgan

October 2023

(pub: Melville House, 2023. 272 page hardback. Price: £20.00 (UK). ISBN: 9-781-61219-992-4)

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