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Eating the Dinosaur Review

This year I decided that I would make a resolution to read more essays because it is a genre in which I am completely lacking. It is for this reason that I picked up Eating the Dinosaur by Chuck Klosterman. I had read "Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs" when it was first published and found it rather lacking. While many reviewers found his essays to be insightful and hilarious, I found them to be littered with swears and tangential to his established thesis. Therefore, it was with great trepidation that I started this book but once I did I could not put it down! I suddenly discovered everything that reviewers had written years ago.

Basically, Klosterman has written Freakonomics for pop culture. He tackles football, basketball, Kurt Cobain, Weezer, Ralph Nader, and Don Draper all in hardcover. Perhaps the greatest testament to his book is that since reading his essays I have rethought my dislike for Kurt Cobain and all things Nirvana. On my top ten list of pop icons that I host a strong aversion to, Steven Speilberg tops off the list but Kurt Cobain comes in as a close second. However, Klosterman has made me feel compassion and understanding for Cobain. Though I still hate his music and find his fans to be some of the most obnoxious people since Jaws fans, I can now appreciate what he did for music and his role in the 1990s.

Only Klosterman can do this! He has the ability to take pop culture icons and intellectualize them which allows people who feel alienated from their generation (such as myself) to think twice about casting aside Brangelina and The Hills as insipid and unworthy of attention. It is with the perfect mixture of insight, cynicism, sarcasm, and humor that makes Klosterman one of the greatest essayists of our time.

Eating the Dinosaur Feature

ISBN13: 9781416544210
Condition: New
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Eating the Dinosaur Overview

Q: What is this book about?

A: Well, that’s difficult to say. I haven’t read it yet—I’ve just picked it up and casually glanced at the back cover. There clearly isn’t a plot. I’ve heard there’s a lot of stuff about time travel in this book, and quite a bit about violence and Garth Brooks and why Germans don’t laugh when they’re inside grocery stores. Ralph Nader and Ralph Sampson play significant roles. I think there are several pages about Rear Window and college football and Mad Men and why Rivers Cuomo prefers having sex with Asian women. Supposedly there’s a chapter outlining all the things the Unabomber was right about, but perhaps I’m misinformed.

Q: Is there a larger theme?

A: Oh, something about reality. "What is reality," maybe? No, that’s not it. Not exactly. I get the sense that most of the core questions dwell on the way media perception constructs a fake reality that ends up becoming more meaningful than whatever actually happened. Also, Lady Gaga.

Q: Should I read this book?

A: Probably. Do you see a clear relationship between the Branch Davidian disaster and the recording of Nirvana’s In Utero? Does Barack Obama make you want to drink Pepsi? Does ABBA remind you of AC/DC? If so, you probably don’t need to read this book. You probably wrote this book. But I suspect everybody else will totally love it, except for the ones who totally hate it.

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Customer Reviews

Thoughtful, entertaining, well-written - Karl Kindt - Kirkwood, MO United States
This is the best Klosterman book to date. This collection of essays has three qualities not usually found together--they are immensely thought-provoking and meaningful, they are thoroughly entertaining, and they are very well written. This time Klosterman goes beyond just pop culture critic. He delves into some of the amazing, subtle, sublime, awful, and odd things about culture in general. The last essay alone ("FAIL") is worth getting the collection, but each essay is strong and worth reading alone. What is most remarkable about Klosterman's ideas is that they are logical and yet they seem at first glance to be insane and nonsensical. This is in my top 100 books of all time.

Irreverent Intelligence at its Finest - TheWordMole -
I fell in love with Chuck Klosterman's seemingly infinite knowledge on all matters trivial and important when I read "Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs." I did read "Chuck Klosterman IV" and was underwhelmed, but that misstep was MORE than made up for with "Eating the Dinosaur."

Bought on a whim at an LAX bookstore in preparation for an exhausting flight back to Atlanta, I wasn't aware just how amazing it would be. Klosterman's skill at comparing two UTTERLY random things in such a way that we wonder why we didn't notice it ourselves is unparalleled. Even though I may be reading about some obscure sports event I wasn't old enough to remember, or some band my parents probably didn't even listen to, the way Klosterman (often hilariously) gives them cultural significance in the most unpredictable contexts is worth the read.

Don't take the book too seriously; the best part about Klosterman is the unassuming way with which he presents his material.

Chucks best book yet - N. Fuerst - Mentor, Ohio
If your a Chuck Klosterman fan then you know exactly what this book is about, if you read Sex Drugs and Cocoa Puffs then you already know whats in store for you. But for the people who have not read a Chuck Klosterman book then please do. Klosterman goes over just about anything you can think of from sports to time travel (which was an amazing chapter) and on from there. He shares his personal experiences and his intellect. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is looking for someone to turn to as a friend in times like these. I also highly recommend his other books.

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Wednesday, September 8, 2010