 Dust-jacket from the first edition. | |
| Author | Michael Moorcock |
|---|---|
| Language | English |
| Series | Karl Glogauer |
| Genre | Literary fiction |
| Publisher | New English Library |
Publication date | 1972 |
| Publication place | United Kingdom |
| Media type | Print (hardback) |
| Pages | 172 pp |
| ISBN | 0-450-01196-8 |
| OCLC | 591231 |
| 823/.9/14 | |
| LC Class | PZ4.M8185 Br PR6063.O59 |
| Preceded by | Behold the Man |
Breakfast in the Ruins: A Novel of Inhumanity is a 1972 novel by Michael Moorcock, which mixes historical and speculative fiction. It was first published in the United Kingdom by the New English Library.[1] The novel centres on Karl Glogauer, who is also the protagonist of Moorcock's Nebula Award winning novella, Behold the Man, his homosexual exploits with an unnamed man from Nigeria, and his fantasies of the past and lives that he could have led.
The novel is divided into nineteen chapters, the first of which is set in the 'present' (1971), the next seventeen spaced out at roughly ten-year intervals from 1871 through to 1990, with the last chapter set once again in the present. The chapters begin and end in the present, with a short scene involving Glogauer and the man, which vary from philosophical discussion to sex involving dominance and submission. The chapters are each also followed, except for chapter nineteen, by a short section entitled What would you do?, which presents sadistic choices, a Morton's Fork, such as:
"You have three children.
- One is eight years old. A girl.
- One is six years old. A girl.
- One is a few months old. A boy.
You are told that you can save any two of them from death, but not all three. You are given five-minutes to choose. Which one would you sacrifice?"[2]
Other dilemmas presented are not that cruel, such as:
- Would you interrupt a pleasant evening out in order to help a stumbling, very messy, completely drunk beggar?
- Would you let your vet put down an old dog which you don't really like but who can live another year or two?
- If your girlfriend becomes pregnant, would you help her get an abortion, suggest that she have the child and offer to help care for it, or abandon her?
- How would you react to a seduction attempt by the mother of your girlfriend, who is quite attractive herself?
- Would you put your old mother into a nursing home or change your life to be able to take care of her?
- If the doctor tells you that your father has only one year to live, would you reveal it to your father?
- If the doctor tells that you yourself have only one year to live, what would you do with that year?
- ^ Ian Davey. "Michael Moorcock Bibliography: Breakfast in the Ruins". Retrieved 18 April 2006.
- ^ "What would you do? (5)". Breakfast in the Ruins. p. 53.