Shotgun!

Killing Yourself to Live
By Chuck Klosterman

Scribner, $23

As road trip companions fare, Spin and Esquire contributor Chuck Klosterman is kind of a downer. First of all, he plans his route so he can stop off at every rock & roll death site he can find. Sometimes this leads to moments of genuine pathos, such as when he does coke with a stranger in the parking lot of the Rhode Island club Great White torched. And sometimes it doesn’t—a mission to see the Lynyrd Skynyrd crash site proves anticlimactic.

Originally conceived as a magazine article, this is a perfect example of why magazine articles aren’t 256 pages long. Using the death trip as a means of contemplating—ugh—his own mortality, Klosterman fills the loooooong stretches between pit stops with tangents about ex- and soon-to-be-ex-girlfriends that might try the patience of his closest pals. To stay engaged is not only to care about the author’s love life but also to take seriously his rants about which Kiss solo albums he likes best.

One thing not in question here is Klosterman’s ability to weave a sentence. Packed with hoary gimmicks like footnotes—gimmicks even he disparages in an effort to stave off critics—this could have been insufferable in lesser hands. As is, it’s merely frustrating that he squanders his skill by taking the wheel with no particular place to go.