Friday, November 6, 2009
New releases
Since I have not finished reading all of the titles yet, I will copy & paste some old posts about the authors’ prior works. Tune in next week for a review of the new Irving novel.
Monday, October 27, 2008
Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman
I was very pleasantly surprised by Chuck Klosterman’s latest book, Downtown Owl: A Novel. While I’m a HUGE fan of Klosterman’s autobiographical works about his adventures as a rock journalist, I had my doubts about his foray into fiction. His most recent nonfiction book, Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas, concludes with a very short story that just didn’t grab me.
Downtown Owl is a perfectly crafted apocalyptic tale about life in a small North Dakota town. Each chapter is told from the viewpoint of a different character, mainly by Mitch the introspective high school jock, Horace the widower, and Julia the new teacher in town. I was amazed by Klosterman’s ability to see things through a woman’s point of view. In his memoirs, he comes across as being a bit of a self-absorbed womanizer.
If you like Jancee Dunn, Nick Hornby, and Dave Eggers, you will love Chuck Klosterman. I highly recommend all of his books:
Klosterman, Chuck. Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas.New York: Scribner, 2006.
Klosterman, Chuck. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto. New York: Scribner, 2003. 
Go Coco Puffs
I think Killing Yourself to Live is my favorite of the Klosterman ouvre. Downtown Owl was good, but it never really builded up to go anywhere… it seemed all too content to just lay around.
Downtown Owl is pretty slow, but I figure small town life must be pretty slow, too.