| Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story | 
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Avg. Customer Rating:   (based on 90 reviews)
Sales Rank: 24728
Category: Book
Author: Chuck Klosterman
Publisher: Scribner
Studio: Scribner
Manufacturer: Scribner
Label: Scribner
Languages: English (Original Language), English (Unknown), English (Published)
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 272
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.6
Dimensions (in): 8.3 x 5.3 x 0.8
ISBN: 0743264460
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.660973
EAN: 9780743264464
ASIN: 0743264460
Publication Date: June 6, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
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Product Description
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.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 85 more reviews...
 The Flying V Neck of Books...Lives On October 30, 2008
Chucky K, as I like to call him, does what any good writer should do, keeps the reader engaged and turning the pages from beginning to end. Is Chuck a Nick Hornby, David Eggers, Elizabeth Wurtzel? Well, of those three I've read A Heartbreaking Work of Staggering Genius and watched the movie High Fidelity based on the book High Fidelity: A Novel of course. And my wife read Prozac Nation (Movie Tie-In) and then we promptly watched Prozac Nation together in which Christina Ricci does a great acting turn as Wurtzel. So Chucky K is himself which is good enough to stand alone. Is his book "Killing Yourself to Live," massively important, a pop cultural tome, or even one of the 10 greatest books of our time. Nope, no, nada. It's not all that. But if you, like me, graduated from High School in the mid to late 80's, even the early 90's, and are a semi-music freak and are drawn to all things pop culture, you will no doubt enjoy reading this book like I did.
There's no accounting for taste which makes Amazon reviewing and music critic opinions so fun. So Chucky K commits an unforgivable sin by idolizing the vocal qualities of Rod Stewart and the man's meterosexual man he is and was. His second unforgivable sin is raising the music and life and times of KISS up on a pedastal. That's what makes this book so enjoyable. The reader finds him or herself comparing musical opinions and what that music means to the opinions Chuck spews forth. KISS's solo albums and their merit? What rock band these days has the audacity or bombasticy to put out a solo record as a group based on each band member's musical vision? And is it really right to say Peter Criss and Ace Frehley had any type of worthy musical ambition whatsoever? Granted my Grandmother did buy me my only KISS album (the 33 and 1/3rd variety) in Ranger, Texas of all places and we wore out listening to one of their few worthy musical contributions...Christine Sixteen, but does this give Klosterman the right to disscect girlfriends based on KISS characters? It may or may not, but you'll be highly entertained listening to him do just that.
I may never compare ex girlfriends to the members of Van Halen but now that Chucky K has done something similar, why not? If we think about it, can't we not relate our relationships to the musical groups we have listened to? Did you have a REM-like ex? Have you been in a self-destructive Nirvana relationship? Or was there that Beatles girl or gal that took over the world and will forever be rated higher among relationships than they truly deserve if you would allow yourself a healthy dose of what's truly important and relevant? This is kind of what it's like to read Klosterman's "Killing Yourself to Live," except when Chucky K is writing its funnier, the wit is sharpened, and the observations are a little more pointed (not terribly pointed though mind you).
So it seems like the big criticism of this book is that Chuck visits dead rocker geographical sites coast to coast and all sorts of points in between and only leaves the reader with self-indulgent navel gazing that tends to be more about his love life than about poignant observations on rock or our culture. Well, pshaw to them I say. Though some of us have found a way to lose the self and become other-centered, it's hard to get away from the world revolving around the self, especially when you have so much tied up into the way you feel about the world around you, how you touch it and how it touches you. Maybe its generational, maybe Klosterman makes too much about pop cultural relevance, maybe Chuck becomes too inwardly focused on matters that might not matter? I don't think so my friend.
Though Klosterman's book centers around his life and how he drives through it, the observations he brings to bear and places he visits...the site of Replacement's guitarist drinking himself to death in Milwaukee, Kurt Cobain's home town, Great White's incendiary night club proves that music touches lives. And the seriousness of death and the irreverence of pop culture mortality leading to immortality can be laughable when looked at just so, that's worth the price of admission.
One things for certain, once you read this book, you'll be listening to Radiohead's RadioHead: Kid A differently, as a soundtrack to what went down on 9/11. If you like music and need a good entertaining light read, don't miss Chucky K's book. I wouldn't rock you wrong my friend. ...mmw
I can't state enough how much I put into this book October 16, 2008
Killing Yourself to Live is a stand out in Klosterman's career. It is not his Spin writings, it is not Fargo Rock City, it is not Sex Drugs and cocoa Puffs, it is a stand out. You don't always have to agree with Klosterman's ideas on music, movies, pop culture ideas. Instead, take the book for what it is, a story about relationships. After reading this book, I took a long hard look at the women in my life and really thought long and hard about the lessons that I could learn from this book.
Klosterman says that the book is 85% of a true story and I believe that considering that the stories are so heartfelt, warm, and sometimes heart breaking. I've given it out to several female friends who have come back to me and said things related to the book and said how similar they are to our relationships. The book is universal. Seriously, go read it. It is amazing.
 Not What You Expect September 15, 2008
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
Whoever coined the phrase "you can't judge a book by its cover" saw this one coming. This book is a decent read if you're into first person narratives about contemporary pop culture.
I stumbled upon this book when some dude who had been reading it in a coffee shop suddenly stood up and angrily slam dunked it into a trash can. Intrigued by any piece of writing that could provoke such a visceral reaction I retrieved it and began to read.
It did not take long to discover the why some readers despise this book. As rock journalism goes it is basically an off topic response. When Klosterman does meander towards the genre his lack of objectivity is stunning. He openly despises almost all rock and roll born of the 60s (for example he says matter-of-factly that Eric Clapton sucks and his immense disdain for Jim Morrison pops up again and again) but he idolizes Kiss to the point that he sees the band as perfect ongoing metaphor for every meaningful relationship he has ever had with a woman. In a book that purports to be about death and rock & roll he spends dozens of pages on the mighty Kurt Cobain in his "Seattle" section without ever mentioning Jimi Hendrix.
Bottom Line: If you are interested in the relationship between mortality and rock & roll this book is very likely to let you down in the extreme. At best Klosterman pokes at the subject a bit here and there while lambasting you with his own personal biases. However, the book is actually a pretty fun read as long as you pretend its a Douglas Coupland novel. It is well written and is quite entertaining. If this was a novel about a guy from the sticks who somehow manages to become a sophomoric NYC rock critic it would be brilliant.
Not the best of Klosterman's work, but can be a worthwhile read. August 25, 2008
One thing I've learned from this book is that despite the fact that individual Amazon reviews are often opinions I don't even remotely agree with, I certainly value the overall score. This Klosterman book probably has the lowest score of all of his books on Amazon, and after reading it, I certainly understand why.
It seems like he wrote this book to pass time by, or maybe to earn some extra cash on the side, as opposed to his other books, which aren't as forced. There are times when I read his essays and I burst out laughing to the extent that I have to read passages multiple times. This book just isn't really funny. It's not as sarcastic, it's not as cynical, and it's not as smart. His investigation, overall, is boring, and that means he did something wrong: writing a book about tragic deaths of rock icons is actually a really interesting topic. I don't mind that he spends so much time rambling about his ex girlfriends (and, well, current girlfriends) because it ends up making sense in the end, but he's too much in his own head and has little venom for the pop culture he is such an excellent critic of.
That said, while I'd read anything he wrote, this is the least interesting of all of them. This may have to do with age (I'm 12 years younger than he is, and sometimes he goes back further in rock history than I can identify with). He's also a better essay writer than an actual novelist: Klosterman is a columnist, a reporter, not really an author. His other books (particularly IV and Sex, Drugs & Cocoa Puffs) are collections of essays/columns. So, all in all, worth the read, if you can find it for a few bucks on Amazon or [...], it's worth it, but overall this is the least interesting of his books.
 Narcissistic, yes, plus insulting! August 3, 2008
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This "journalist" is not qualified to comment on the multitude of musical artists he bashes; this fact is obvious by the evidence that the book wanders through his boyish experiences with women--which are, pathetic.
Aside from his boring, self-indulgent babble regarding first-time female experiences and pointless encounters with drugs and new-found friends, he blatantly insults some of the most legendary artists of all time, downplaying their careers and success (ie, relates the career of Waylon Jennings to the Dukes of Hazzard theme song). As the book progressed (if you want to call it that), the author continues to demonstrate his lack of research and/or knowledge about any of the individuals he speaks of, showing his lack of interest and his own immaturity in being able to draw any meaningful takeaways.
The author, for instance, goes to the Skynyrd plane wreck site, but does nothing once he gets there. Thanks for sharing. Profound. Do you have any first-hand experiences with members of this band? Then you just aren't qualified to say a word.
I couldn't endure the last few chapters. It went in the trashcan. Don't bother. It's the worst book I've ever encountered. And by the way, love how it is plastered with positive quotes from the press on the inside cover. I'd love to read the full reviews, because I am certain these blurbs are nothing but cherrypicking. A young, uninformed egomaniac who needs to go back to writing single newspaper paragraphs about local talent.
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