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ericfheiman's review against another edition
4.0
Think of Chuck as the smart-ass little brother of Greil Marcus. Insighful, hilarious critiques of popular culture.
thisbriannahope's review against another edition
1.0
So I thought Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs was great, right? One of the facets of it that I enjoyed most was the exploration of popular culture icons that I am familiar with but don't know a whole lot about. As a result I thought IV, a collection that includes actual interviews with many musical artists and actors as well as the uncut articles they accompanied, would be right up my alley.
And it probably would have been, if I didn't suddenly hate Klosterman's writing. His vocabulary in this was grating: the same four, infrequently used words appeared over and over again. And I noticed each time. His articles varied very little in the way they were constructed and written.
Maybe his writing just matured after he left Spin, but getting through this was torture.
And it probably would have been, if I didn't suddenly hate Klosterman's writing. His vocabulary in this was grating: the same four, infrequently used words appeared over and over again. And I noticed each time. His articles varied very little in the way they were constructed and written.
Maybe his writing just matured after he left Spin, but getting through this was torture.
barjeanne22's review
1.0
After loving Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, I expected to love this one just as much. I was expecting the same series of punchy, pithy short essays. I had to drag myself through the first two-thirds of the book just to find one I halfway enjoyed. As a journalism major, I would have thought I could relate to the stream of essays on sports writing and the like, but it was just tedious. By the time it finally got good, it was the series of hypotheticals in klosterman's classic style that made me want to finish the book, but so many of them I had already read since a friend gifted me the "Klosterman hypotheticals" game a year earlier, and he draws heavily from this collection. In the end, it made me wary of picking up another Chuck book for a while. I thought it was a shoe in for my bookshelf, but I was definitely let down.
naleagdeco's review against another edition
4.0
Overall one of CK's most satisfying books, even though I subjectively feel each and every essay is just a tad too short for some reason (I have not attempted to determine whether this is true by any objective measurement.)
zach_collins's review against another edition
2.0
Through a series of essays, Klosterman provides his own unique world, a world filled with British rappers, middle school basketball games and reality TV programs. Just like his other essay collections, Klosterman consistently offers an intriguing and unique approach to pop culture, often suggesting the possibility that something significant exists right behind what is often described as "low-culture." However, other than several fascinating celebrity interviews and some hilarious anecdotes, IV falls fails to rise to the occasion.
Chuck Klosterman IV certainly contains the perspectives of several curious people, but the only dangerous idea I could find was that Klosterman might consider himself a talented writer. While some of his interviews are well done, they are also weighed down by Klosterman's incessant need to comment on everything he has written. This unnecessary self-reflection appears in many forms, including introductions, footnotes and outragous hypothetical situations, but it all exists for no other reason than to draw attention to Klosterman himself. These lengthy and rather annoying bouts of self-awareness would be forgiveable if they didn't end up forming about a quarter of the book.
The final straw is the last section of the book, a semi-autobiographical short story of Klosterman's brief stint as a film critic for a newspaper in North Dakota, which might be the second worst piece of fiction I have ever read (the first worst being the novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami).
I suggest reading the first section (possibly skipping the essay about the Carribean cruise) and then closing the book for good.
Chuck Klosterman IV certainly contains the perspectives of several curious people, but the only dangerous idea I could find was that Klosterman might consider himself a talented writer. While some of his interviews are well done, they are also weighed down by Klosterman's incessant need to comment on everything he has written. This unnecessary self-reflection appears in many forms, including introductions, footnotes and outragous hypothetical situations, but it all exists for no other reason than to draw attention to Klosterman himself. These lengthy and rather annoying bouts of self-awareness would be forgiveable if they didn't end up forming about a quarter of the book.
The final straw is the last section of the book, a semi-autobiographical short story of Klosterman's brief stint as a film critic for a newspaper in North Dakota, which might be the second worst piece of fiction I have ever read (the first worst being the novel The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami).
I suggest reading the first section (possibly skipping the essay about the Carribean cruise) and then closing the book for good.
harvio's review against another edition
3.0
- Hunter-Thompsonesque cultural criticism
- chapters on sports and heavy metal were lost on me
- chapters on sports and heavy metal were lost on me
missjenm's review against another edition
2.0
The celebrity interviews were really entertaining, smart, and funny. Once you get to the middle essays it drags quite a bit and Klosterman's writing style starts to get pretty stale.
matthewwester's review against another edition
5.0
This is the third book I've read of Klosterman's and I've enjoyed all three. He's a great writer and this is a book chock full of entertaining essays/articles/stories, what else could you ask for? My only complaint is that I bought a used copy and page 399-400 is ripped out and now that's all I can think about. What was on that page?