Downtown Owl: A Novel by Chuck Klosterman is not the most recent book I’ve read. It also is not the least recent book I’ve read and not written a post about.  So you might be asking yourself: Why pick this book?  Well, apparently I’ve been obsessed with the great state of North Dakota this week.  So in honor of that trend: Downtown Owl is set in a small North Dakota city.  But wait.  You should still read it.

From the publisher’s blurb:

Somewhere in North Dakota, there is a town called Owl that isn’t there. Disco is over, but punk never happened. They don’t have cable. They don’t really have pop culture, unless you count grain prices and alcoholism. People work hard and then they die. They hate the government and impregnate teenage girls. But that’s not nearly as awful as it sounds; in fact, sometimes it’s perfect.

Mitch Hrlicka lives in Owl. He plays high school football and worries about his weirdness, or lack thereof. Julia Rabia just moved to Owl. She gets free booze and falls in love with a self-loathing bison farmer who listens to Goats Head Soup. Horace Jones has resided in Owl for seventy-three years. He consumes a lot of coffee, thinks about his dead wife, and understands the truth. They all know each other completely, except that they’ve never met. (Links Added).

So the book is a story about a small town in a small state.  I grew up in ND, but I have no ideas what its like to live in a small city like Owl.  Fargo is not huge, but the difference between a population of 100,000 and 800 seems substantial to me.  So while I doubt Klosterman has the most realistic view of small town life, his life experience in the subject greatly outweighs mine, so I will defer.  The book’s plot centers around a 1984 blizzard which killed people around the state because of its sudden development and follows three people’s lives before, up to, and after the blizzard.

Overall I thought the book was good, especially for a first novel.  But it could have been much better if the characters either would have differed to a greater degree, or were developed to a greater degree.  That being said, I was invested in each of the main characters storyline and I literally felt bad for each character’s plight.  If you want to read about what it means to be “normal” this book is for you as each of the characters struggles with what it means to be normal.

Overall, I thought the book was a good read and have already recommended it to a couple of friends.  Has anyone else read this book?  Are Klosterman’s other books worth reading?

[Chuck Klosterman has also authored Of Fargo Rock City; Sex, Drugs, And Cocoa Puffs; and Killing Yourself To Live. And he also is a columnist for Esquire and has written for GQ, Spin, The New York Times Magazine, The Washington Post, The Believer, and ESPN.]

Its a funny little book, and is a variation of a murder mystery. Christopher John Francis Boone is the fifteen year old narrator. He is mathematically gifted and and happens to be autistic. Unable to understand his peers or adults, he struggles to cope with with world.

Some other random facts about Christopher: He has a pet mouse. He relaxes/calms himself down by doing math problems.⁴ He’ll eat red food but won’t eat anything yellow or brown.⁵ He starts screaming when he’s touched.

I was very happy with this book and was glad that my system, of shopping for books by their cover in airports, still works. For a first novel, Haddon has done a very good job of creating a compelling story. He’s no stranger to writing, but even so, I’m excited for his future works. I liked that the book was unlike any other I have read. It was basically a murder mystery, but from the point of view of an autistic child.⁶ If you’re looking for some fiction that is different than your usual run of the mill novel, you should check this book out.⁷

1. Outdoors
2. Politics
3. Baseball
4. Death
5. Naturalism

I really enjoyed reading this book. Perhaps I was predisposed to enjoying this book, because I am from the Midwest and live in DC, but I think that most of the feeling, motions and events would resonate with almost everyone. Who hasn’t experienced loss that they couldn’t cope with, or been to a baseball game? The narrative is a very American story: that anyone can create change both in themselves and also in society itself, that no man should let other define his story, and that everyone has an obligation to their family and friends.

It is difficult to find a book that successfully blends politics, hunting/nature, and romance, and then also creates a compelling narrative. But this book does just that. It is a unique and original story; I have never encountered a similar book. If you are looking for a plot line that is different from the books you usually read, and are open to exploring a more Midwestern view of the world you should check out this book.

Has anyone else read this book? Or have you encountered a story with a unique topic? A book similar to Waiting for White Horses?

Before posting on Anderson Cooper’s or Nassim Nicholas Taleb’s book I’d like to write about a book I just read. On my flight from Washington DC to Fargo, North Dakota I had the pleasure of reading The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini. Several of my friends and colleagues had read this book and recommended me to read it, and I bought it right away (although it sat on my book shelf for many months). Generally speaking when a book is recommended so highly it doesn’t live up to my expectations; this was not the case for The Kite Runner. The book which takes place in both Afghanistan and the United States is full of passion and candor. Publishers Weekly states:

Hosseini’s stunning debut novel starts as an eloquent Afghan version of the American immigrant experience in the late 20th century, but betrayal and redemption come to the forefront when the narrator, a writer, returns to his ravaged homeland to rescue the son of his childhood friend after the boy’s parents are shot during the Taliban takeover in the mid ’90s. Amir, the son of a well-to-do Kabul merchant, is the first-person narrator, who marries, moves to California and becomes a successful novelist. But he remains haunted by a childhood incident in which he betrayed the trust of his best friend, a Hazara boy named Hassan, who receives a brutal beating from some local bullies. After establishing himself in America, Amir learns that the Taliban have murdered Hassan and his wife, raising questions about the fate of his son, Sohrab. Spurred on by childhood guilt, Amir makes the difficult journey to Kabul, only to learn…

the boy has been enslaved by a former childhood bully who has become a prominent Taliban official. The price Amir must pay to recover the boy is just one of several brilliant, startling plot twists that make this book memorable both as a political chronicle and a deeply personal tale about how childhood choices affect our adult lives. The character studies alone would make this a noteworthy debut, from the portrait of the sensitive, insecure Amir to the multilayered development of his father, Baba, whose sacrifices and scandalous behavior are fully revealed only when Amir returns to Afghanistan and learns the true nature of his relationship to Hassan. Add an incisive, perceptive examination of recent Afghan history and its ramifications in both America and the Middle East, and the result is a complete work of literature that succeeds in exploring the culture of a previously obscure nation that has become a pivot point in the global politics of the new millennium.

I was completely enthralled with this novel. I had only around 160 pages left in the book and I decided to read for 5 or 10 minutes before bed. Instead of around 10 min I read for almost two hours finished the book (I started reading at 1 am). As soon as I finished I bought Hosseini’s second book A Thousand Splendid Suns on Amazon so I can read it as soon as possible (By the way you can get both at amazon by clicking the pictures of the books on this page. You can get The Kite Runner for $5.50 which is pretty much a steal).

The Kite Runner is a tale of fatherly and brotherly love, that most men in America can empathize with. Maybe it was just me, but a story about fighting for your fathers love and a story about the demons between you and your brother’s relationship resonates with my experiences. I absolutely loved this book. It had just enough plot twists to keep my interests, but had a story with an ending that wasn’t so much of a surprise that I was mad or let down. This book is easily the best fiction I have read in the last 3 years, and comes highly recommended from me. If you are at all interested in Afghanistan, the middle east, the Taliban or a well written story, you would enjoy this novel. If you have read it please share your opinions.