September 08 - Pacific San Diego Magazine

give a
BOOK of the month
COOL
TURE
hoot
Downtown Owl, by best-selling author Chuck Klosterman
by bonnie vandewater
What does it mean to be normal?
Reading Downtown Owl (Scribner,
September 2008), the first novel by New
York Times best-selling author Chuck
Klosterman, may not give you the answer,
but it may lead you to rephrase the question.
A master at analyzing and dissecting pop
culture, Klosterman has authored scores of
esoteric articles and four books of analytical
essays, including his 2003 bestseller, Sex, Drugs
and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto. He
has been a senior writer for Spin and a regular
contributor to The Washington Post, GQ and
New York Times Magazine.
Now, this quirky writer offers up his first work of
fiction—a darkly comedic examination of life in Owl, a
small town somewhere in North Dakota. The story involves a
strange high school football player named Mitch, a borderline alcoholic
named Julia, a bison farmer who listens to the Rolling Stones album, Goats
Head Soup, and an old-timer who drinks too much coffee and obsesses about
his dead wife.
By delving deep into the human psyche, Klosterman shows how a seemingly
“normal” life can be, well… extraordinary.
Bonnie Vandewater: What can you tell us about Downtown Owl?
Chuck Klosterman: It’s a fictional account of North Dakota in 1983, and it
essentially follows the lives of three main characters who are aware of each
other, because it’s a small community, but who have no real relationship. But
they’re kind of unified ultimately by a situation at the end of the book. It’s more
like a character study than a plot-driven book.
BV: What are you working on now?
CK: Right now I’m working on another book of essays. I decided I wanted to
do shorter pieces again. I had these different things I was playing around with,
and then decided I wanted to write about the things that interest me personally.
I like to take two unlike things—or things that seem unalike—and show
how the experience consuming them is the same.
BV: Will you be stopping in San Diego for a book tour?
CK: I’ll be coming to L.A., but not San Diego. You know, I’ve never been to
San Diego. The only time I ever travel is if it’s work-related. I’ve never taken a
vacation. My girlfriend wants to go to Costa Rica next February, and if we do
that, it will be the first time I’ve ever gone somewhere purely to hang out. I
don’t even know what people do on vacation. Growing up, my parents never
took a vacation. I think I’d get bored. I feel like a vacation would be a lot of
work. You have the responsibility of having to get up at a certain time. Like,
“Oh, we’ve gotta go look at the mountains.” I don’t like planning things, and,
on vacation, people always want to plan things. I imagine if I went to San
Diego for two weeks, I’d feel like it was a job.
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