The Nineties

The Nineties by Chuck Klosterman (2022) I didn’t expect to read this book, much less enjoy it, but for some reason I picked it up (well, the reason is, I liked a couple of other books by the author) and something near the beginning hooked me in. I’m not sure what, now, probably multiple things—most likely sports-related. Anyway, I zipped right through it, happily. I got a little burnt-out, eventually, by the government and politics end of the spectrum, but it was nice to reconceptualize all that bullshit—as well as the arts, sports, and entertainment stuff. I realize that there is quite a bit of nostalgia for the decade of the Nineties, now, lately, but I think this most certainly comes from people younger than me—likely who experienced the decade in their teen years. What’s interesting for me is that I feel like, as far as popular culture goes, I missed the decade entirely—due to a lack of interest (because of other focused interests, including non-mainstream film and music, illness, alcoholism/recovery, and a few engulfing art projects). So, I thought maybe this book would be a nice way to “catch up”—but it isn’t really, of course, about the “Nineties”—rather, Chuck Klosterman’s version of the world we live in, with that decade as a hook. One thing immediately apparent to me is that our age difference (he’s about 12 years younger) feels like not merely a generation, but multiple generations—but maybe that’s more due to both his unusual take on most things, and my feeling generationally older than even people my age. I do feel, though, like I would enjoy talking to him about nearly any subject, but most of all, sports. I like how the book is organized—the table of contents tells you almost nothing, and there is an index, but you should resist jumping to the subjects you think are most interesting to you. The book is best taken in from beginning to end, as quickly as you can read it, and imagined as a sometimes inspiring and sometimes maddening monologue by your brilliant and annoying younger, punk friend who never fails to have an opinion about everything and is a lot of fun to argue with.

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