Killing Yourself to Live

 

This is my first Chuck Klosterman, and now I have to go back and read everything else he's written.  Damnit.  

So I was given this as a birthday present about... shit... four years ago.  This gives you some sense of how bad of a reader I am.  But I'm making amends, damnit!  Four weeks into the new year, four books read.  Huzzah!  This is a friend who always buys me a really interesting book for my birthday every year, and I'm going to finally read them all.  I'm going to stop being "that asshole".  

The nuts and bolts are that Chuck is a journalist for Spin Magazine out of New York, and he's been assigned to do an "epic" story about the death of musicians wherein he'll go on a road trip to the places where they've died, and while doing so he ended up with enough material for an entire book.  But it's not just about death and musicians, although they're used strongly for metaphors throughout the narrative, what it's really about is Klosterman digging into his well of past relationships - which I myself have done through my work, as have many others.  Near the books end he even references the similarities between his quest and High Fidelity, as if he needs to compare.  

For the record, I really love what he has to say about relationships.  I think he's got a very grounded and universal point of view while at the same time speaking about it in a way that's extremely fresh and gives you a few "a-ha" moments.  However, the greatest strength of this book is sometimes it's greatest weakness.  Chuck goes into intimate emotional detail about his personal life, but he often cock blocks you from getting to know too much.  It's like a friend telling you that they've got a really awesome story to tell you, but they really can't.  It's annoying and you wonder why the hell they brought it up in the first place.  Either you tell an awesome personal story, or you don't - don't go halfway and pretend that it's enough.  And that's my biggest problem with this book, one could easily say that Chuck is being brave by putting his heart on his sleeve (and he is, of course he is) but I just figure that if you're going to go to the trouble of exploiting these relationships and these people, you might as well get right into it. 
What I particularly love is that he's not a music snob and seems extremely open minded about all types of music.  I love that he brings a Shania Twain CD with him on the trip, that he admits to owning all of Britney Spear's albums because he has a feeling it will be important, all while at the same time he goes on about the hipster albums one would expect, and a seriously in depth knowledge of rock.  I have no doubt that Chuck knows his shit about music by not discounting things because they're too popular or not enough.  I trust him.

This is a book that reads as smooth as silk.  I find that I have a tendency to 'skim' when I realize that the author is going on a tangent that I'm not into, but I don't think I missed a single word of this entire book.  It's an excellent book, and I wonder if it wouldn't make an excellent film as well...

Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story