“Esquire” and “Spin” columnist Chuck Klosterman is deeply concerned with popular culture. His previous novel, “Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto,” is a collection of essays dealing with topics as diverse as “Saved by the Bell,” Billy Joel as the “anti-cool,” the social implications of amateur pornography, women who love John Cusack and why Coldplay is an awful band. For his next book, he decided to focus on the story behind a story he wrote for “Spin.”
His latest work, “Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story,” is ostensibly the story of his road trip through the United States visiting rock star death sites. He describes stops at Graceland, the woods where Lynyrd Skynyrd’s plane crashed, the cornfield where the plane carrying Buddy Holly, Richie Valens and the Big Bopper went down and the greenhouse in which Kurt Cobain was found, among others. He even writes detailed comments on these places – for example, why rock stars seem to die in plane crashes so often. On the surface, it is very easy to say that “Killing Yourself” is about the deaths of rock stars.
Most of the book, however, is devoted to Klosterman’s relationships with other people, specifically his romantic relationships. Late in the book, he relates a conversation with a friend in which she begs him not to write a book about the women he has dated. Of course, he does not take this advice, but he is somehow able to write an interesting book about both dead musicians and former lovers. His thoughts on his relationship with a woman named Lenore seem just as relevant as any thoughts he might have on the deaths of Sid Vicious and Nancy Spungen.
Part of the appeal of the book comes from Klosterman’s informal style. It almost seems as though he is having a conversation with you. He comes off as a friend you have never met, and although it is often easy to disagree about things that he hates (his targets include the city of Los Angeles and punk rock) or things that he loves (his favorites include “The Real World” and Fleetwood Mac,) there are a lot of things that many readers will be able to relate to.
Readers might have a hard time believing what Klosterman says, at times. He opens the book by saying, “I am not qualified to live here,” referring to New York City, and often writes about growing up in North Dakota and enjoying Chinese buffets and Fleetwood Mac. He complains that New York is complicated, but if there’s anything more complicated than a man who likes those things and also writes for “Spin,” or holding down relationships with two women at the same time, it certainly isn’t evident in this book.
The fact that Klosterman did not write a book solely about notorious deaths is actually what allows the book to succeed as it does. There is certainly an audience for that sort of thing, but his decision to write about a variety of things gives “Killing Yourself” a more universal appeal than one would expect. People who know nothing about music will not necessarily be turned off when he makes references to rock and roll, just as people who know nothing about sports probably will not mind when he writes about Lakers vs. Celtics games. The book ends up being about death, but not just the deaths of celebrities, and not just about the physical death; the book is about everything dying, from relationships with others to the success of a sports team. Although there will be plenty of times when a reader will disagree with Klosterman, there will be many more times when they are able to relate to him completely and understand exactly what he is talking about.
