Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story

"Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story"
Chuck Klosterman
Scribner, $23





In "Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story," Chuck Klosterman chronicles two and a half weeks of his life, with plenty of anecdotes from his past and predictions of his future. He has loaded up a rental car with CDs with intentions of driving around America, visiting places where musicians have met their end — which, he observes at the start of his journey, often tend to be the beginning of their notoriety, or at least what people remember them for.

But this book is not just about the life (and death ) of musicians. It is about Klosterman's life, and his thoughts, and the women he loves, and music, and mastodons.

Klosterman is funny and clever. His observations of life seem ordinary and obvious, but his explanations are entertaining and engaging.

I feel like I can relate to everything Klosterman has said, never mind the fact that what we have in common hardly extends beyond the facts that we both have worked for newspapers and enjoy writing and music. He is able to explain the very exact feeling I have felt in a very specific situation at some important point in my life, even if what led him to have that feeling is something I never have nor ever will experience.

His perception of human interaction is fascinating, especially the integration into pop culture and society. His insight on human nature is funny, because it's true, and sad, because it's true. If I were someone who smoked marijuana, I feel like I could get high with my friends and talk about how Klosterman's writing is so deep and real and we soooo get it, and I think he would be flattered by that. (Though, I'm sure we could do the same thing sans marijuana and he would appreciate it just as much.)

Reading "Killing Yourself to Live" made me feel as though I had learned something about human interaction — but perhaps the only thing I definitely learned was that I don't know as much about music as I had hoped (or wished) I did. And even though I enjoyed the entire book, my favorite part was toward the end:

We all have the potential to fall in love a thousand times in our lifetime. It's easy. ... But there are certain people you love who do something else; they define how you classify what love is supposed to feel like. These are the most important people in your life, and you'll meet maybe four or five of these people over the span of 80 years. But there's still one more tier to all this; there is always one person you love who becomes that definition. It usually happens retrospectively, but it always happens eventually. This is the person who unknowingly sets the template for what you will always love about other people, even if some of those lovable qualities are self-destructive and unreasonable. ...The person who defines your understanding of love is not inherently different than anyone else, and they're often just the person you happen to meet the first time you really, really want to love someone. But that person still wins. They win, and you lose. Because for the rest of your life, they will control how you feel about someone else. (232)

And that is why people are so happy and unhappy about love all at the same time. And Klosterman found a way to put it into words. And that is one of the things that makes his writing great, which is definitely the reason you should read this book*.


* "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" might be the best way to dive into Klosterman to get used to his writing style, unless those of you who make fun of me for rambling while telling stories actually don't mind it.