Published: 2022 (Penguin)
Setting: Chuck Klosterman’s Mind
Summary: Chuck Klosterman recaps and dissects the Nineties as a feeling, not as a stated fact in his newest book, The Nineties. Weaving cultural analysis, political commentary, and personal experience Klosterman paints a picture of the Nineties with a deft hand and an inquisitive mind. Klosterman is interested in how the 90’s seemed more than it was. Oftentimes he takes an assumption about the 1990’s that is widespread and turns it on his head. Whether he is reflecting on the cultural impact of the Matrix, Ross Perot, or The Real World he knows which buttons to push to come to a better understanding of this era. One of is more effective ruminations centers on the role that the Columbine shooting played in ostracizing goths and made them rebrand. Klosterman tackles the cultural meaning of technology and the effect it had on how people perceived time in a way that helped shape how I think about decades. This was a pleasure to read, and I would recommend this to everyone who wants to read a fresh perspective from a grizzled vet.
Quote of the book: “Modern people worry about smartphone addiction, despite the fact that landlines exercised much more control over the owner. If you needed to take an important call, you just had to sit in the living room and wait for it” (137). This level of reflection is all over the text.
Favorite character: Bill Clinton, I have mixed feelings about Bill Clinton, but Klosterman captured some of what I think is so polarizing about him and put it into words I could understand.
Favorite Setting: The American living room, I’m currently sitting in my living room waiting for the landline to ring.
Please Stay for: Klosterman’s insight (again), this man knows the right questions to ask.
Please Question: Why we don’t have more books like this (again).
Will Reviews Things 