July 21-27, 2005

art

Killing Yourself to Write

SPIN-OFF: Music critic Chuck Klosterman turned his magazine piece into a book. Photo By: christopher McLallen

Chuck Klosterman explains why it's OK to be 15 percent wrong.

by Frank Halperin

Chuck Klosterman is the Tom Hanks of pop criticism. His writing is unpretentious, energetic and, yes, likeable. At 33, he's become the most insightful popcult commentator in contemporary journalism. He's accomplished this by a) maintaining a genuine, uncurbed enthusiasm for the subjects he deconstructs, recalling the fervency of Rolling Stone teen prodigy Cameron Crowe; b) demonstrating an astonishing gift for precise and often profound details that consistently enhance his work; and c) possessing a sincere comprehension of mass culture and its significance to society. This last attribute is perhaps the most important; Klosterman not only understands the appeal of what other critics may dismiss as lowbrow entertainment, but also happens to enjoy it. Be it '80s metal (the focus of his debut book, Fargo Rock City) or Saved by the Bell and The Real World (zealously analyzed in Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs), his unapologetically populist impressions are, ultimately, a fan's notes — albeit fiercely sophisticated ones, with footnotes.

Klosterman's latest endeavor, Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story (Scribner, 256 pp., $23), is an inspired postmodern travelogue that blends a Spin-assigned nationwide trek to chronicle the sites where rock stars met their tragic fates with the author's wistful recollections of three women who injected his life with a morphine rush of tormented ambivalence. It reads like a testosterone-prose Court and Spark. The book displays his striking acuity for juxtaposing the literal and the figurative, as well as affording plenty of room for his inimitable digressions, riffing on the metaphysical differences between "Slow Ride" and "Free Ride," and how you can instantly "get the entire Rod Stewart experience" by listening to track six on each disc of the Storyteller box set.

One steamy Saturday afternoon last month, Klosterman polished off a Mountain Dew in the East Village's Tompkins Square Park and spoke to City Paper about simple twists of fate and tainted love.

City Paper: How did the Spin piece evolve into a book?
Chuck Klosterman: I knew the Spin story was going to be longer than normal — I was thinking at least 5,000, maybe 7,000 words. I had a laptop with me and was writing along the way about what happened every single day on the trip. It soon became clear that it was going to be way over the word count for a magazine piece. So I started throwing in a few details about these women I was thinking about. About halfway through, going into Minneapolis, I thought: I'd never normally do this — drive cross-country — and I wanted to write a narrative book, because my other two weren't. And I started seeing how my relationships with these three women formed a narrative — an ultimatum with one, an ultimatum with another, and this third girl I was planning to see in Minneapolis that I'd thought would be the crux of the narrative. But she wasn't there, so it became a straight narrative. Yet before I got there, I started to see this developing into a book.

CP: Explain the 85 percent ratio.
CK: When you're recreating conversations, it's 85 percent of a true story. I think I have a pretty good memory, but I'm also conceding that I'm probably 15 percent wrong. This is the formula I used for the book: The journalism, I had notes on and tape recorded, so I felt that was accurate as could be. But when I'm talking about girls I dated 10 years ago, I remember it clearly in my mind, but factually there's room for error. If someone's a public figure who's part of the journalistic end of the book, I used their name. When I was recreating conversations such as with the three girls, and the character Lucy Chance, I changed their names.

CP: Was this 6,557-mile odyssey a life-changing experience?
CK: Well, a little bit, but really, it's the book that's changed my life. The actual drive was merely interesting — I met cool people, I'm glad I did it, but at the end of the trip, I was sort of the same person. Then I wrote a book about it — now I'm on tour all summer, doing readings. It's weird — it's like my thinking of the trip seems to have more impact on my life than the trip.

CP: Besides authoring books, you contribute a monthly column to both Spin and Esquire, plus other extensive writing. How do you keep going?
CK: I really do enjoy it. I love the typing, that part of it. You know [laughs], writing is the only successful relationship I've ever had in my life.

Chuck Klosterman reads Tue., July 26, 7 p.m., free, Free Library, 1901 Vine St., 215-686-5322.