Title: The Nineties
Author: Chuck Klosterman
Genre: Nonfiction, essays, History
Pages: 384
Publication Date: January 31, 2023
StoryGraph* Moods: Informative, Reflective, Funny
How I Stumbled Upon This Book: Wandering around B&N
Other Books by Klosterman: But What if We’re Wrong?, Chuck Klosterman X: A Highly Specific, Defiantly Incomplete History of the Early 21st Century, Raised in Captivity
*StoryGraph also offers content warnings.
Description: The 1990s is a decade that is hard to define, and reading this book will remind anyone who lived through them just how much we lived through. “In The Nineties, Klosterman dissects the film, the music, the sports, the TV, the pre-9/11 politics, the changes regarding race and class and sexuality, the yin/yang of Oprah and Alan Greenspan, and (almost) everything else.” And he does it all with a bit of humor and a masterful synthetization.
Why I recommend this book:
First, if you lived through this era, it’s quite the romp down memory lane. There were so many things I had forgotten about – and some I didn’t know. Other pieces (like music and the course set by the creation of Napster) just went deeper than I had originally understood them. It’s also a great read for anyone who wishes to learn about this decade but isn’t interested in the content being delivered like a textbook – the writing is, overall, engaging and easy to consume. Last, it will keep the reader on their toes. As Paul Markowich from The National Book Review notes, “The Nineties is a mind-bending trip that never signals where it is going next. Klosterman will make an incredibly insightful philosophical or sociological comment immediately followed by a discussion of ‘Achy Breaky Heart’.”
Something missing?
Something that is missing is a more generalized perspective. As Nik Dirga notes, Klosterman states that “[i]t was, in retrospect, a remarkably easy time to be alive” – but Dirga continues by adding “[w]hich is only really true if you came….from pretty comfortable white middle class American existences.” (Klosterman’s first footnote does point out his shifting perspective of class from upper-lower to middle-middle to lower-upper through his lifetime.) We also don’t get a clear idea how he defines this decade, aside from it being the decade prior to a whole lot of change. (This was a time when the internet was around, but it hadn’t really sunk its teeth into our society. The way we thought and felt and lived in the ’90s is a far cry from life today – so he wasn’t wrong about that.) If you are looking to come away with the “answer” of what the ’90s really were, this isn’t the book for you.
However, if you are looking to reminisce and continued the conversation with some amusing ideas and thought-provoking concepts, then definitely give this a go. As Laura Miller from Slate puts it, “It’s an eccentric buffet, from which you are free to savor what appeals to you most, and if you aren’t served what you were looking for, well then you’ve come to the wrong kitchen.”
“Part of the complexity of living through history is the process of explaining things about the pas that you never explained to yourself. So many temporary realties, distantly viewed in the rearview mirror, will appear ridiculous to any person who wasn’t there.” ~ Chuck Klosterman
Ami Maxine 