SO it turns out that the work of Chuck Klosterman isn’t that different when it is not true. 
Downtown Owl, the fictional debut of the established essay-writer and memoirist, still rings with the trademarks of all things Chuck – random observation, cultural insight, sardonic humor. But Downtown Owl isn’t traditional fiction. What Klosterman has done more accurately is create a sort of fictional canvas – the made-up small town of Owl, North Dakota – on which to flesh out a cultural commentary - not unlike something from his other books. Downtown Owl is in some ways a fictional furthering of the ideas that propelled his non-fiction debut, Fargo Rock City. Both books are - at their root - most about growing up in small town North Dakota in the ‘80s.
Downtown Owl follows three main characters – Mitch, Julie and Horace. Mitch is in high school, awkward and confused. Julie is a high school teacher – starting a career in education that she never wanted in a town she’s never heard of before. Horace is a widower, a senior citizen who enjoys a quiet existence full of books and coffee breaks. Each live very different lives that barely intersect with each other. But all have one thing in common – the town of Owl.
Here Klosterman blurs the lines – he takes these characters and this town and injects them with actual happenings from the time period. Most notably, Klosterman spends a lot time with the story of Gordon Kahl – an extremist whose refusal to pay taxes in 1983 ended in a shootout with government agents – and an infamous snowstorm that overtook North Dakota in early February 1984.
The concept is interesting and the read is fun and typically Klosterman-like. But Klosterman ends his fiction the same way he ends his non-fiction – inconclusively. The reader is left with pieces of a story and a decision as to how to take what he has been given. And this tactic is less successful when the story isn’t weighted with reality.
No comments:
Post a Comment