After a bestselling and acclaimed diversion into fiction, Chuck Klosterman, author of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, returns to the form in which heās been spectacularly successful with a collection of essays about our consumption of pop culture and sports.
Q: What is this book about?
A: Well, thatās difficult to say. I havenāt read it yetāIāve just picked it up and casually glanced at the back cover. There clearly isnāt a plot. Iāve heard thereās a lot of stuff about time travel in this book, and quite a bit about violence and Garth Brooks and why Germans donāt laugh when theyāre inside grocery stores. Ralph Nader and Ralph Sampson play significant roles. I think there are several pages about Rear Window and college football and Mad Men and why Rivers Cuomo prefers having sex with Asian women. Supposedly thereās a chapter outlining all the things the Unabomber was right about, but perhaps Iām misinformed.
Q: Is there a larger theme?
A: Oh, something about reality. āWhat is reality,ā maybe? No, thatās not it. Not exactly. I get the sense that most of the core questions dwell on the way media perception constructs a fake reality that ends up becoming more meaningful than whatever actually happened. Also, Lady Gaga.
Q: Should I read this book?
A: Probably. Do you see a clear relationship between the Branch Davidian disaster and the recording of Nirvanaās In Utero? Does Barack Obama make you want to drink Pepsi? Does ABBA remind you of AC/DC? If so, you probably donāt need to read this book. You probably wrote this book. But I suspect everybody else will totally love it, except for the ones who totally hate it.