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Winnipeg Free Press - PRINT EDITION

Klosterman snarky, thought-provoking

Reviewed by: David Jón Fuller

Posted: 11/28/2009 1:00 AM | Comments: 0 (including replies)

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Eating the Dinosaur

By Chuck Klosterman

Scribner, 256 pages, $30

HAS Chuck Klosterman jumped the shark?

Not a literal shark, as the North Dakota-born pop culture critic and bestselling author would be quick to tell you, likely weaving in a clever Fonzie metaphor. But in Eating the Dinosaur, has his quirky, self-referential and self-deprecating style begun to consume itself?

That's the feeling you get from opening essay Something Instead of Nothing, wherein Klosterman, now 37, pontificates on the art of the interview, or, as he puts it, sustaining "a professional existence by asking questions to strangers and writing about what they said."

Covering music and sports for publications ranging from SPIN to the Onion to the New York Times Magazine, Klosterman has made grilling celebrities his bread and butter.

But in Something, he essentially interviews himself on how he feels now that he spends more time being interviewed than interviewing others.

His opinions are regularly sought on music (the modern myths of which he happily exploded in previous books Fargo Rock City and Killing Yourself To Live) and sports (on which he expounded regularly for Esquire).

But do we really care how Klosterman feels about being interviewed, or why other people agree to it? Don't we just take it for granted?

More interesting are his explorations of why Nirvana seemed to need to alienate its fans in order to satisfy them, and how this may or may not relate to David Koresh and the Branch Davidians setting themselves up for an apocalypse at the hands of the FBI.

If you think that's a touchy subject, keep reading until you get to Fail, in which he analyzes the negative social impact of technology meant to improve our individual lives, and concedes on this subject the Unabomber may have had a point. (Of course, he's in no way condoning the Unabomber's actions, which is the way he's afraid some people will read this.)

It's not all heavy stuff, but it's usually thought-provoking. Consider that the National Football League is actually one of the most progressive cultural forces in America -- despite its conservative image, he demonstrates how football tactics and even rules change radically. "But you'd never guess that from watching the NFL Network," he writes. "Marxism is not a talking point."

Eating the Dinosaur, aside from the opening chapter, is less self-referential than Klosterman's earlier books. But his trademark sense of humour is still barbed.

He wonders, for example, why mega-successful country star Garth Brooks wanted to reinvent himself at the height of his career as an unknown singer but still sell as many records.

"Which is not to say Brooks was obsessed with money, because that's totally different," he observes; "the Rolling Stones care deeply about money, but they don't give a shit about how it's acquired. If Kiss could make more money farming than playing in a band, Gene Simmons would immediately sign an endorsement contract with John Deere."

It's surprising that after just releasing his first novel, Downtown Owl, last year, Klosterman would have the steam to put together another snarky and thought-provoking book. But unless you, too, are fixated on why people agree to be interviewed, skip the first section and enjoy the rest.

David Jón Fuller is a Winnipeg Free Press copy editor.

Republished from the Winnipeg Free Press print edition November 28, 2009 H8

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