"Fargo: Rock City"book. (Review)

Artist Personal Journalist

I'm usually great at separating the Art from the Artist but in this case the Art IS the Artist. Oscar Wilde said it better in "Picture of Dorian Gray" but here Chuck explains it as well:
"It's always been my theory that criticism is just veiled autobiography, whenever someone writes about a piece of art, they're really just writing about themselves."
Chuck talks a lot about glam metal. And other types of hard rock and "metal" music. After 20 years of this being on the shelves, I still learned some cool stuff from it that I never knew. And checked out some music I had never given a shot before too.
Chuck IS funny. And a good writer. I haven't read (m)any tongue-in-cheek memoir style books before but alongside his entertaining writing is a lot of blatant dismissive opinions on the new/nu metal of the time he was writing. He sounds like a crotchety old man who can't be objective at all. And in the epilogue he admits it but that doesn't make it any better.
Also after 20 years this doesn't age well. But I doubt he cares because in his own words:
"And when I read my high school journal and realize what a homophobic, racist, sexist, and genuinely unlikable person I was at the age of seventeen, I force myself to laugh."
Perhaps he forced himself to laugh because he didn't want to take any responsibility and change or mature much. He still reads as pretty unlikable for all the reasons he listed above.
He knows a lot about music. And sometimes even expresses it well. And he's entertaining. But he's also unapologetic in a Trumpian, Locker Room Talk kind of way that is at times, hard to spend time with. Will I read more Chuck Klosterman? Yes. But with cringe-coloured glasses because of this first experience.

*No Spoilers*. (REVIEW - WEEK 16, YEAR 4)

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