Chuck Klosterman's book reviewed

Former Beacon Journal reporter Chuck Klosterman’s new book is reviewed on the Books page (E5) of Sunday’s newspaper.

Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas is a collection of pieces Klosterman has written for his many employers, which include Esquire, Spin and The New York Times Magazine.

Here’s a summary from BJ staff writer Dan Kadar:

The book is divided into three parts. The first part, by far the book's largest, is profiles mostly from Spin, where Klosterman was a senior writer. The profiles begin with Britney Spears, who Klosterman claims is ``the most famous person'' he's ever interviewed. It's an odd way to start a section that mostly profiles artists who are the antithesis of Spears.

Although Klosterman worked at the Beacon Journal from 1998 to 2002, little of that work was included in IV. The exception is a humorous story about Akron-area psychics from December 1998.

The second part is essays, culled mostly from his column in Esquire. Each essay is introduced with a hypothetical, which are both funny and slightly perplexing and reminiscent of his second book, Sex, Drugs and Cocoa Puffs.

The third part is Klosterman's first piece of published fiction. This is the most interesting, possibly because it's the only original material in the book, or possibly because it's based in Akron.

The story, titled You Tell Me, is about Jack, a man who, like Klosterman, is from North Dakota and works for the daily Akron paper. Outside of a before-work dabble with drugs, the fiction begins when a woman falls from the sky onto Chuck, er, Jack's car.

The story was written in 2000, so it should be interesting to see Klosterman's progress as a fiction writer. If nothing else, IV shows how Klosterman has grown as a journalist over the years.

Click on the headline above to read the review, Google to the bookdealer or buy a copy for $25.