There's his brilliant debut "Fargo Rock City", which is both a biography of his teenage years in North Dakota, and a history of eighties metal. There's "Sex, Drug, and Cocoa Puffs", the collection of pop-culture essays for which he's probably best known. You've got "Killing Yourself To Live", which people either love or hate, which is kind of about a cross-country trip visiting sites where rock stars died, but is really about understanding love and death through music. And finally, there's Chuck Klosterman IV, which is just a collection of his previous writings plus a new short story. It's probably the worst thing he's released, although I'm sure he'd recognise that, I think it was mainly just a means of allowing his readers access to some of his earlier work.
I got the new Chuck Klosterman book "Downtown Owl" in the mail yesterday. Following on from the short story in his last book, the new one is entirely fiction. But after reading the first two chapters on the bus this morning, it's obvious that he's again taken parts of his own experience, specifically the knowledge of what it's like growing up in a small semi-rural American community, and written about that.
I haven't read a whole heap in recent years, but I can't wait to get through this one. Detailed review to come soon . . .
2 comments:
in order, its gotta be sex, drugs then fargo close second. IV is third some distance back, still entertaining i guess but he was starting to get a bit smug, and killing yourself is a distant last, put me in the "hate" category. Looking forward to reading the next one
I would actually go Killing Yourself to Live at number 1
Sex, drugs and cocoa puffs at 2, and Fargo Rock City at 3.
You're right, he did start getting a little pleased with himself with IV, although I think some of my impressions have also come from the Simmons podcasts.
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