Chuck Klosterman goes back to North Dakota

Dale Myers

18 September 2008

Asked what prompted him to scribble a novel after 4 nonfiction books, he took a stab at an answer and then stopped. "I started typing, and then it ended up being a book," he announced. What are the likely answers to that question?".

OK, let's approach it from this angle : Was writing a novel something you have always hankered after to do and you waited till you had some success and returned to it, or did you do those other books and decide to try a novel? That is the one query I have been asked in each interview : 'Why a novel now?'". I don't like to ask the same queries everybody else does, but certainly you understand. If I wrote 4 books and then wrote a nonfiction book, it might be ( similarly ) relevant.". It's set in a fictional city in North Dakota, Klosterman's home state, and deals with a place and time he thinks he knows

well. He put a note, in italics, before the title page : "This is a nonautobiographical work of fiction." Out of anywhere worldwide, he returned to the land of "Fargo Rock City," his 1st book. "When I am reading fiction, the thing that takes me out of the tale the most is when ( the writer ) gets superfluous details wrong," Klosterman expounded.

"I felt a hundred p.c assured that I could go back to that place and know what it was like. I was eleven in 1983, and that is about as far back as I could go and still have clear, lucid memories. I might have gone to some tiny city in Oklahoma and investigated it, but I continue to would not have known how it felt or what type of pop they drank or what sort of music was on the radio.". If it is's better to be an unknown 1st writer or a 1st author with 4 prior books and a name as an original thinker about pop culture, Klosterman had an engaging point. "The 1st time you write a book, if it is's any good, the reception is always going to be the most positive," he revealed. "If you are unknown and the book's no good, folk are not going to irritate. I'm of the opinion that this book will have some degree of success, with no regard for the quality, because folk know who I am. Having said that, I am better off simply because I am a lot less scared about what's going on. Writing books is what I do for a living.".