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NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SEX, DRUGS, AND COCOA PUFFS
CHUCK KLOSTERMAN IV
CONSISTS OF THREE PARTS:
THINGS THAT ARE TRUE
Profiles and trend stories: Britney Spears, Radiohead, Billy Joel, Metallica, Val Kilmer, Bono, Wilco, the White Stripes, Steve Nash, Morrissey, Robert Plant — all with new introductions and footnotes.
THINGS THAT MIGHT BE TRUE
Opinions and theories on everything from monogamy to pirates to robots to super people to guilt, and (of course) Advancement — all with new hypothetical questions and footnotes.
SOMETHING THAT ISN'T TRUE AT ALL
This is old fiction. There's a new introduction, but no footnotes. Well, there's a footnote in the introduction, but none in the story.
"Mr. Klosterman makes good, smart company." — The New York Times
"He's perfect junk food for the soul." — The Los Angeles Times Book Review
"I think I love onion rings, but I actually don't. Very often, I will purchase onion rings and throw them in the oven, and I'll be very excited about the premise of consuming them. However, when I finally start to eat supper, I realize they're only okay. Somehow, this situation has happened to me at least five times in my lifetime: For some reason, I keep unconsciously convincing myself that onion rings are delicious."
"The original title for Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs was American Minotaur, but everybody turned against me."
Contents
Things That Are True
Southern-Fried Sex Kitten
Bending Spoons with Britney Spears
(This Happened in) October
Mysterious Days
Call me "Lizard King." No...really. I insist.
Crazy Things Seem Normal, Normal Things Seem Crazy
1,400 Mexican Moz Fans Can't Be (Totally) Wrong
Viva Morrissey!
Chomp Chomp
The Amazing McNugget Diet
McDiculous
My Second-Favorite Canadian
The Karl Marx of the Hardwood
Deep Blue Something
That '70s Cruise
"Deep Sabbath"
In the Beginning, There Was Zoso
Not a Whole Lotta Love
Disposable Heroes
Band on the Couch
Unbuttoning the Hardest Button to Button
Garage Days Unvisited
The Ice Planet Goth
Something Wicked This Way Comes
Fitter, Happier
No More Knives
The American Radiohead
Ghost Story
Bowling for the Future (and Possibly Horse Carcasses)
Local Clairvoyants Split Over Future
But I Still Think "All for Leyna" Is Awesome
The Stranger
Someone Like You
Dude Rocks Like a Lady
Taking The Streets to the Music
Untitled Geezer Profile
Five Interesting Corpses
The Ratt TrapHow Real Is Real
The Tenth Beatle
Here's "Johnny" 207
Fargo Rock City, for Real
To Be Scene, or Not to Be Seen
Things That Might Be True
The Grizzly Hypothetical
Nemesis
The Transformation Hypothetical
Advancement
The Unknown Companion Hypothetical
I Do Not Hate the Olympics
The Dress Code Hypothetical
Three Stories Involving Pants
The Court of Public Opinion Hypothetical
Don't Look Back in Anger
The Brain Pill Hypothetical
Not Guilty
The Life Plagiarist Hypothetical
Cultural Betrayal
The Universal Morality Hypothetical
Monogamy
The Joe Six-Pack Hypothetical
Certain Rock Bands You Probably Like
The Hitler Theft Hypothetical
Pirates
The Robot War Hypothetical
Robots
The Cannibal's Quandary
Super People
The Apocalypse Hypothetical
Television
The General Tso's Hypothetical
Singularity
Something That Isn't True at All
You Tell Me
Acknowledgments
Index
This collection of Klosterman interviews of famous people in American culture, his speculative essays of pop philosophy, and one crazy hilarious unfinished-feeling novella were just plain fun to read. I love his style of writing, which I know many people have to hate, which makes me love it all the more. If you have every liked anything Klosterman has written, you will certainly love this. If you have never liked anything by Klosterman, you will certainly not like this. Fun and crazy. Read a sample of it, and you will find it is a fair and accurate representation of the whole work.
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.Hannah_Black
Posted March 15, 2010
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You know the friend you have that always seems to know everything about the strangest of subjects? Chuck Klosterman is that person. Klosterman knows almost all there is to know about eighties hair metal, the formation of punk, and the texture of chicken nuggets. In IV, Klosterman shows that he has settled nicely into the niche of a pop-culture writer by creating articles over anything and everything, relevant or irrelevant, for magazines like Spin. This book is a compilation of a decade worth of his articles about a variety of subjects.
His style of writing is very down-to-Earth, like he's talking to a friend, but at the same time it's condescending. Each person he interviews is almost made fun of or turned into a social experiment. For example, while interviewing musician Jeff Tweedy, who later suffered from a nervous breakdown, Klosterman mocks his family-man lifestyle while also saying that Tweedy is a modern Willy Loman, a man who will never live up to his own ideals. For Klosterman, every interviewee is not a person, but a lesson. He finds insight in all of his articles, but I'm not sure there really ever is such an insight. In the Tweedy interview, the musician seems like he's enjoying his life, but Chuck always seems to see a deeper meaning. He twists the quotes of his subjects to fit into his hypotheses about the modern world.
It feels as if Klosterman is trying to be the guru of modern pop culture, and while he may hold that title, I question if it is well-deserved. The conclusions that he comes to want to have resonance, but they always seem to fall flat and feel rushed. In his novel "Downtown Owl," the same kinds of "deeper meanings" are given, but they have more of a place in a story with characters, than in an interview with celebrities. Klosterman turns his subjects into characters in his own personal novel of life. The interviews are never solely about the interviewee, but always relate to Klosterman's life or the life of everyone in America, like the theme and message of a novel should.
To me, there is no comment on popular culture in Britney Spears' answers about her perceived Madonna/Whore. They are simply the comments of a young celebrity. But for Klosterman, every subject has something to tell the world about life. I admire his love and quasi-obsession of music and popular culture, but that love makes him sometimes sound a bit condescending towards the reader, as if they are inferior since they aren't obsessed as well. Yes, Klosterman sometimes has valid points and interviews, but the distracting messages and the self-importance distract from that. I would recommend this book to someone who is interested in learning about a variety of subject from music to Nebraska, but won't mind some unimportant themes thrown in.
3 out of 4 stars.
joncampbell
Posted January 9, 2010
I Also Recommend:
chuck was blogging before blogging was anything. his witty prose about music and the lifestyle will have you in stitches. i read this novel in one sitting, couldn't put it down. if only we could all live such an exciting life
Was this review helpful? Yes NoThank you for your feedback. Report this reviewThank you, this review has been flagged.ChrissyB
Posted June 30, 2009
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I love reading Klosterman's books and this one was just as fantastic as his others that I've read. His focus is mostly on rock music - heavily from the '70s and early '80s - and sports, specifically NBA basketball, however I still enjoyed his essays about these topics and others that more closely applied to me. The entries provide interesting insight on topics I know a good bit about and also those on which I know very little. I also just really enjoy his writing style and humor, so I'll read anything that he writes.
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Overview
NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF SEX, DRUGS, AND COCOA PUFFS
CHUCK KLOSTERMAN IV
CONSISTS OF THREE PARTS:
THINGS THAT ARE TRUE
Profiles and trend stories: Britney Spears, Radiohead, Billy Joel, Metallica, Val Kilmer, Bono, Wilco, the White Stripes, Steve Nash, ...