Published: 2005 (Scribner)
Setting: 2000's U.S.A.
Summary: Chuck Klosterman's third major work of non-fiction explores how the death of a rockstar changes our memory of them. Klosterman further posits the question: How does how we remember the dead highlight what we think of ourselves, and how we see ourselves in relation to popular culture?
Klosterman, having been sent out by Spin Magazine to write a story about dead rockstars, drives over 6,000 miles from New York to Seattle, stopping on the way to meet old lovers, visit old haunts, and drive into the heart of America to see how it beats. Chuck moves through chapters alternately talking about the deaths of stars such as Buddy Holly, Elvis, and acts like Lynyrd Skynyrd and the Allman Brothers. When Klosterman isn't venturing into corn fields where the dreams of bands perished, he is drinking himself to the bottom of a bottle, calling his ex-lovers and having quasi-intellectual discussions that tiptoe around the larger issues in that relationship. Klosterman ends the book where he started, lovelorn and buried in knowledge which presents more questions than answers, but you always feel like he has an insight into your psyche even if he hasn't met you. He is a real writer, with prescient insights that hold up almost twenty year laters. He will make you love KISS b-sides even if you hate the band, he will make you ponder whether you want to smoke a J and climb up a fire-escape with a smokeshow, and he most definitely will make you hop in a car and breathe in this country while listening to Faster Pussycat.
Quote of the book: "I want to find out why plane crashes and drug overdoses and shotgun suicides turn long-haired guitar players into messianic prophets."
This is Chuck's research question, the driver of everything in this book.
Favorite Character: Chuck's frenemy, he shows up towards the end of the book and Chuck's description of this character is a lot like one of my friends. I relate to Chuck more than any other author by far.
Favorite Setting: Chuck's tender and insightful description of the town where the famous Great White concert fire occurred.
Favorite reference: Chuck put a portion of his Radiohead Kid A article about how it almost predicted 9/11 and is the haunting soundtrack to that horrific day.
Please stay for: Everything.
Please Question: Chuck's drinking problem (although now he is in his 40's and living a quiet life with a wife and kids in my hometown of Portland, OR).
Rating: 4.5/5, highly recommend with a guitar-pick on top.
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