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Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

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Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story Cover

ISBN13: 9780743264457
ISBN10: 0743264452
Condition: Standard
Dustjacket: Standard
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Synopses & Reviews

Publisher Comments:

For 6,557 miles, Chuck Klosterman thought about dying. He drove a rental car from New York to Rhode Island to Georgia to Mississippi to Iowa to Minneapolis to Fargo to Seattle, and he chased death and rock 'n' roll all the way. Within the span of twenty-one days, Chuck had three relationships end — one by choice, one by chance, and one by exhaustion. He snorted cocaine in a graveyard. He walked a half-mile through a bean field. A man in Dickinson, North Dakota, explained to him why we have fewer windmills than we used to. He listened to the KISS solo albums and the Rod Stewart box set. At one point, poisonous snakes became involved. The road is hard. From the Chelsea Hotel to the swampland where Lynyrd Skynyrd's plane went down to the site where Kurt Cobain blew his head off, Chuck explored every brand of rock star demise. He wanted to know why the greatest career move any musician can make is to stop breathing...and what this means for the rest of us.

Review:

"Klosterman follows up on 2003's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by expanding on an article he wrote for Spin about driving cross-country to visit several of America's most famous rock and roll death sites, from the Rhode Island club where more than 90 Great White fans died in a fire, to the Iowa field where Buddy Holly's plane crashed. Along the way, Klosterman opines on rock music, never afraid to offend — as when he interprets a Radiohead album as a 9/11 prophecy or reminds readers that before Kurt Cobain's suicide, many preferred Pearl Jam to Nirvana. The quest to uncover these deaths' social significance is quickly overwhelmed by Klosterman's personal obsessions, especially his agonizing over sexual relationships. He applies semifictional techniques to these concerns, inventing an imaginary conversation in the car with three girlfriends that becomes the book's centerpiece. This literary cleverness recalls classic gonzo journalism, but also contains a self-conscious edge, inviting comparison to Dave Eggers. Klosterman also worries his neuroses will brand him as 'the male Elizabeth Wurtzel,' but he needn't fret. Despite their shared subject matter of drug use and cultural musing, Klosterman has clearly established that he has a potent voice all his own. Agent, Daniel Greenburg. (July 19)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)

Review:

"Klosterman's musings are pretty darn funny and well-articulated....[A] light and humorous read that sporadically touches on heavy issues. It's the literary equivalent of hanging out in a bar with good friends talking about dumb stuff, which is ultimately the only stuff that matters." San Antonio Express-News

Review:

"[A] grim but snappy travelogue....Klosterman's keen eye for American pop-cultural themes and undercurrents facilitates thoughtful observation, and his prose brings those themes and undercurrents together in strange, fresh ways. A treat for the adventurous." Booklist

Review:

"Writing in a stream-of-consciousness style, Klosterman talks more about himself than these famous ghosts....In the process, he delivers a sometimes hilarious but ultimately superficial account of the meaning and challenges of everyday life." Library Journal

Review:

"I can't think of a more sheerly likable writer than Chuck Klosterman and his old-fashioned, all-American voice: big-hearted and direct, bright and unironic, optimistic and amiable, self-deprecating and reassuring — with a captivating lack of fuss or pretension. He's also genuinely funny and I pretty much agree with everything he says." Bret Easton Ellis

Review:

"Thank God Chuck lives the life he does and writes the way he writes about it. It's not just autobiography; it's a vital form of truth, and he's the real thing." Douglas Coupland

Synopsis:

Building on the national bestselling success of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, pop culture writer Klosterman unleashes his best book yet — the story of his cross-country tour of sites where rock stars have died and his search for love, excitement, and the meaning of death.
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About the Author

Chuck Klosterman is the New York Times bestselling author of Downtown Owl; Chuck Klosterman IV; Killing Yourself to Live; Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs; and Fargo Rock City, winner of the ASCAP-Deems Taylor Award. He is a Contributing Editor for Esquire, a regular contributor to The New York Times Magazine, and has also written for Spin, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Believer, A.V. Club, and ESPN. Klosterman grew up on a farm near Wyndmere, North Dakota. After graduating from the University of North Dakota, he wrote for the Fargo Forum and the Akron Beacon Journal. Klosterman is published in eight territories and seven languages. Klosterman lives in New York City.
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What Our Readers Are Saying

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Average customer rating based on 2 comments:
Hannah Freed, January 2, 2010 (view all comments by Hannah Freed)
An entertaining read. I loved how Klosterman connected the music to his own life...
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brian.stowell, January 2, 2010 (view all comments by brian.stowell)
An affirmation of the self-importance and fragility of life weighed against the legend-making act of death, Chuck Klosterman's "Killing Yourself To Live" is an introspective look at one's life, lived vicariously through others. Still with me? Klosterman's writing style is punctuated by egregious idioms and over-the-top, non-sequitor, often tiresome cultural references. He embarks on a road trip, zig zagging the country seeking out major monuments in death in rock and roll history and uses these somber meccas to affirm his own self-importance of life in an attempt to convince you to feel the same. It's a quick and dirty ride as you sit in the passenger seat of Taun Taun, the nickname Klosterman dubs his rental car - after the wooly creature from the planet Hoth in The Empire Strikes Back - and are taken from Hotel Chelsea in NYC to Graceland to Seattle, visiting the last sights of highly influential musicians. Are classics and legends made classic and legendary by their untimely deaths? Are they humanized by their demise or entered into history as martyrs of the forever young?

Sub-question: is it in fact unfair to criticize a formerly great artist for his latter day sins, is it better to burn out or fade away?
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Product Details

ISBN:
9780743264457
Subtitle:
85% of a True Story
Author:
Klosterman, Chuck
Publisher:
Scribner
Subject:
Popular Culture
Subject:
Death
Subject:
Rock
Subject:
Essays & Travelogues
Subject:
Rock musicians
Subject:
Travelers
Subject:
Popular Culture - General
Subject:
Genres & Styles - Rock
Copyright:
2005
Edition Number:
1st
Publication Date:
June 28, 2005
Binding:
Hardback
Grade Level:
General/trade
Language:
English
Pages:
256
Dimensions:
8.4375 x 5.5 in 12.32 oz
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Related Subjects

Arts and Entertainment » Music » Genres and Styles » Rock » History
Arts and Entertainment » Music » Genres and Styles » Rock » Reference and Criticism

Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story Used Hardcover
0 stars - 0 reviews
$7.50 In Stock
Product details 256 pages Scribner Book Company - English 9780743264457 Reviews:
"Publishers Weekly Review" by , "Klosterman follows up on 2003's Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by expanding on an article he wrote for Spin about driving cross-country to visit several of America's most famous rock and roll death sites, from the Rhode Island club where more than 90 Great White fans died in a fire, to the Iowa field where Buddy Holly's plane crashed. Along the way, Klosterman opines on rock music, never afraid to offend — as when he interprets a Radiohead album as a 9/11 prophecy or reminds readers that before Kurt Cobain's suicide, many preferred Pearl Jam to Nirvana. The quest to uncover these deaths' social significance is quickly overwhelmed by Klosterman's personal obsessions, especially his agonizing over sexual relationships. He applies semifictional techniques to these concerns, inventing an imaginary conversation in the car with three girlfriends that becomes the book's centerpiece. This literary cleverness recalls classic gonzo journalism, but also contains a self-conscious edge, inviting comparison to Dave Eggers. Klosterman also worries his neuroses will brand him as 'the male Elizabeth Wurtzel,' but he needn't fret. Despite their shared subject matter of drug use and cultural musing, Klosterman has clearly established that he has a potent voice all his own. Agent, Daniel Greenburg. (July 19)" Publishers Weekly (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
"Review" by , "Klosterman's musings are pretty darn funny and well-articulated....[A] light and humorous read that sporadically touches on heavy issues. It's the literary equivalent of hanging out in a bar with good friends talking about dumb stuff, which is ultimately the only stuff that matters."
"Review" by , "[A] grim but snappy travelogue....Klosterman's keen eye for American pop-cultural themes and undercurrents facilitates thoughtful observation, and his prose brings those themes and undercurrents together in strange, fresh ways. A treat for the adventurous."
"Review" by , "Writing in a stream-of-consciousness style, Klosterman talks more about himself than these famous ghosts....In the process, he delivers a sometimes hilarious but ultimately superficial account of the meaning and challenges of everyday life."
"Review" by , "I can't think of a more sheerly likable writer than Chuck Klosterman and his old-fashioned, all-American voice: big-hearted and direct, bright and unironic, optimistic and amiable, self-deprecating and reassuring — with a captivating lack of fuss or pretension. He's also genuinely funny and I pretty much agree with everything he says." Bret Easton Ellis
"Review" by , "Thank God Chuck lives the life he does and writes the way he writes about it. It's not just autobiography; it's a vital form of truth, and he's the real thing." Douglas Coupland
"Synopsis" by , Building on the national bestselling success of Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, pop culture writer Klosterman unleashes his best book yet — the story of his cross-country tour of sites where rock stars have died and his search for love, excitement, and the meaning of death.
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