false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1211543883m/2159007.jpg 2159007 7 Somewhere in North Dakota, there is a town called Owl that isn't there. Disco is over, but punk never happened. They don't have cable. They don't really have pop culture, unless you count grain prices and alcoholism. People work hard and then they die. They hate the government and impregnate teenage girls. But that's not nearly as awful as it sounds; in fact, sometimes it's perfect. Mitch Hrlicka lives in Owl. He plays high school football and worries about his weirdness, or lack thereof. Julia Rabia just moved to Owl. She gets free booze and falls in love with a self-loathing bison farmer who listens to <I>Goats Head Soup</i>. Horace Jones has resided in Owl for seventy-three years. He consumes a lot of coffee, thinks about his dead wife, and understands the truth. They all know each other completely, except that they've never met. Like a colder, Reagan-era version of <I>The Last Picture Show</i> fused with <I>Friday Night Lights</i>, Chuck Klosterman's <I>Downtown Owl</i> is the unpretentious, darkly comedic story of how it feels to exist in a community where rural mythology and violent reality are pretty much the same thing. Loaded with detail and unified by a (very real) blizzard, it's technically about certain people in a certain place at a certain time...but it's really about a problem. And the problem is this: What does it mean to be a normal person? And there is no answer. But in <I>Downtown Owl</i>, what matters more is how you ask the question. 2164522 16 9 2008 Downtown Owl: A Novel total:1665|5:227|4:619|3:599|2:169|1:50| 1665 5799 2942 456 3 5 false false Fri Sep 05 16:11:42 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 20 10:14:11 -0700 2008
1) I realize slamming Klosterman is fashionable, but I liked this book, esp. the first 250 pages, quite a bit. However, it's important to note that Klosterman loves North Dakota and parts of Downtown Owl read like mash notes to the author...more...]]> 2 6 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 19 19:56:32 -0700 2008 Thu Oct 09 18:59:24 -0700 2008
The fact that he’s never written fiction before is painfully, achingly, stu...more...]]> 4 3 false true Sun Aug 17 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Feb 02 09:35:27 -0800 2008 Sun Aug 17 20:22:25 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 3 false false Fri Sep 12 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 10 11:58:38 -0700 2008 Fri Sep 12 21:50:15 -0700 2008
I think, perhaps, had I read this several years ago, it would...more...]]> 3 2 false false Mon Sep 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 27 13:09:14 -0700 2008 Sat Sep 27 13:09:47 -0700 2008 more...]]> 5 2 false false Thu Feb 05 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 22 20:06:31 -0800 2009 Tue Feb 24 13:11:57 -0800 2009 more...]]> 5 1 false false Wed Jan 21 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 07:40:20 -0800 2009 Thu Jan 22 07:41:49 -0800 2009 more...]]> 2 5 false false Tue Jul 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sat May 24 11:53:52 -0700 2008 Fri Aug 01 20:32:26 -0700 2008 4 1 false false Thu Nov 20 12:04:03 -0800 2008 Thu Nov 20 12:30:44 -0800 2008 more...]]> 2 1 false true Wed Oct 29 12:25:44 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 29 12:33:07 -0700 2008 more...]]> 4 1 false false Wed Oct 01 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Sun Sep 28 13:57:03 -0700 2008 Fri Oct 03 21:10:58 -0700 2008
It's also a good thing I grew up in a small town in North Dakota. I kno...more...]]> 3 1 false false Wed Oct 15 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Wed Sep 24 14:45:56 -0700 2008 Wed Oct 15 09:06:42 -0700 2008 more...]]> 2 2 false false Fri Nov 14 04:56:58 -0800 2008 Mon Nov 03 06:27:12 -0800 2008 Fri Nov 14 04:56:58 -0800 2008
I enjoyed individual chapters of the book. Unto themselves, there were quite a few of them that told interesting stories about the main characters with Klosterman's snarky ...more...]]> 3 0 false false Sat Feb 07 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 19 12:00:55 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 19 12:01:17 -0700 2009 more...]]> 3 0 true false Tue Mar 03 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Thu Mar 12 11:44:46 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 12 11:57:35 -0700 2009 more...]]> 2 0 false false Fri Feb 06 00:00:00 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 12:22:12 -0800 2009 Sun Feb 08 12:47:12 -0800 2009 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Nov 25 00:00:00 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 25 11:53:10 -0800 2008 Tue Nov 25 12:03:21 -0800 2008 more...]]> 3 0 false false Tue Oct 06 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 10:34:00 -0700 2009 Tue Oct 06 11:32:24 -0700 2009 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Oct 13 00:00:00 -0700 2008 Mon Sep 14 17:46:48 -0700 2009 Mon Sep 14 17:49:02 -0700 2009 1 more...]]> 2 0 false false Thu Jul 30 00:00:00 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 07 09:21:07 -0700 2009 Fri Aug 07 09:58:01 -0700 2009 Klosterman? Fiction? This could be good. But now after I've read it, I'm just frustrated.
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