Reading Chuck Klosterman's DOWNTOWN OWL was somewhat a leap of faith for me. How would the sharpest pop culture thinker handle the swap to fiction? Very well, that's how. It's not only his insight and his perspective that makes Klosterman's writing valuable. The man has a mind that walks to its own drum and therefore, whatever he'll ever write will always bear his personal seal of quality. DOWNTOWN OWL doesn't talk about actual facts, but it reads like one of his essays. It's every bit as funny and insightful, except this time, Klosterman's object of study is the human condition.
DOWNTOWN OWL has three narrators, from three different generations and struggling with their own set of issues. They're not really "problems" per se, because quiet, small-town America doesn't exactly deal in "problems". Mitch, Julia and Horace are just trying to figure out how to fit in among "normal people", where normality couldn't be more insular. In DOWNTOWN OWL, Chuck Klosterman treats small questions and existential queries with the same dilligence he treats rock stars and professional athletes and the result is both endearing and hilarious.
THREE REASONS TO READ : DOWNTOWN OWL
1) The Portrait of academic sports. Klosterman highlights its binding and rallying nature on so many levels, through the characters of Mitch, Grendel and Vance. The complexity of its meaning for Owl's resident is almost makes it worth reading the book for that alone.
2) The Grendel Vs Cubby Candy fight talk. Small town life for boys is often about the fight game, about who's the alpha male around. Once again, it's something that Klosterman picked up very well.
3) Local lore. Each character in DOWNTOWN OWL comes in two version. Their real self and the person people made them to be. This very duality is what the novel is about.
THREE TOPICS ABOUT : DOWNTOWN OWL
1) Why do you think athletes have such an important, almost Godlike status in Owl?
2) Do you think Julia is attracted to Vance for the same reasons everybody else is? If not, what do you think she likes about him?
3) Why do you think nicknames are so important in Owl? What does it mean for townsfolk to have a nickname?