Chuck Klosterman is an American journalist, rock critic, essayist, and writer. He has written four books of essays including the successful Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto and Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story, about a cross-country trip centered around the sites of various rock and roll deaths. He currently writes a column for Esquire called Chuck Klosterman's America. In it he focuses on some microcosm of American society and uses it to draw broad conclusions about the rest of society.
Born on June 5th 1972, Klosterman graduated from the University of North Dakota. Previously he has written for The Believer, The Washington Post, and was for a time the senior editor for Spin; these days his focus has began to shift to writing about sports for ESPN.
The primary facet of Klosterman's work is the sheer weight of his pop culture knowledge. Reading one of his essays is akin to sitting two plane seats behind the sort of asshole that owns all of the films in The Criterion Collection, save for the fact that his observations rarely come off as pedantic or pompous. His voice lends itself to the essay; he is easily conversational and trenchant where appropriate.
Searching for Klosterman on esquire.com will provide numerous examples of his criticism and humor.
Books
- Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota (2001)
- Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto (2003)
- Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story (2005)
- Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas (2006)