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Start giftingThe Nineties
Bookseller recommendation
“Born in the mid-nineties but truly a child of the 2000’s, I have always romanticized the nineties. Klosterman uniquely provides a broad but also individual look at my favorite decade. Only having fleeting knowledge of various aspects of the decade- Y2K, OJ Simpson, landlines, watching Friends live- I loved Klosterman’s take and insights on the times!”
Miranda,
Loganberry Books
Bookseller recommendation
“Klosterman examines some of the key cultural, technological, and political events of the nineties with a specific focus on how this decade shaped the people who came of age during this period.I am the audience for The Nineties. I graduated from high school in 1995 and I vividly remember every key event that Klosterman mentions in his book, including the OJ Simpson trial, the Clinton scandal, the Los Angeles Riots (happened a mere fifteen minutes from my home), death of Kurt Cobain, Oklahoma City Bombing, et… But I must confess that I had not given much thought to many of these events in many years and Klosterman’s analysis brought me right back to that era of my life, but with the benefit of distance...Klosterman narrates his own audio book and I found his voice to be pleasant and easy on the ears. I appreciated this time hop back to my teens and although some uncomfortable revelations were experienced, I enjoyed Klosterman’s keen observations. This book would be fascinating for many people, but it will have special meaning if you are old enough to remember the nineties.”
Karen,
Tattered Cover
Bookseller recommendation
“The Nineties is a collection of short essays addressing, drum roll please, the 1990s (shocker, right?). Ultimately lacking a single unifying thesis, Klosterman dives into facets of 90s culture—sports, politics, music, film, TV, etc—discussing the effects of different key events and changes occurring in the decade. Klosterman explores the dissonance between the way the world was digested in the 90s and the immediate and vast way the world is absorbed in the present day, highlighting the seeds planted in the 90s leading to this shift. The Nineties is an enjoyable way to revisit a decade full of cultural peculiarities. Klosterman’s wit and mordant humor guides the reader in separating out truths of the 90s from the web of revisionist history often dominating communal memory. Enjoyable for all. Nostalgic for some. Educational for others.”
Emma,
Content
Bookseller recommendation
“Born in the mid-nineties but truly a child of the 2000’s, I have always romanticized the nineties. Klosterman uniquely provides a broad but also individual look at my favorite decade. Only having fleeting knowledge of various aspects of the decade- Y2K, OJ Simpson, landlines, watching Friends live- I loved Klosterman’s take and insights on the times!”
Miranda,
Loganberry Books
An instant New York Times bestseller!
From the bestselling author of But What if We’re Wrong, a wise and funny reckoning with the decade that gave us slacker/grunge irony about the sin of trying too hard, during the greatest shift in human consciousness of any decade in American history.
It was long ago, but not as long as it seems: The Berlin Wall fell and the Twin Towers collapsed. In between, one presidential election was allegedly decided by Ross Perot while another was plausibly decided by Ralph Nader. In the beginning, almost every name and address was listed in a phone book, and everyone answered their landlines because you didn’t know who it was. By the end, exposing someone’s address was an act of emotional violence, and nobody picked up their new cell phone if they didn’t know who it was. The 90s brought about a revolution in the human condition we’re still groping to understand. Happily, Chuck Klosterman is more than up to the job.
Beyond epiphenomena like "Cop Killer" and Titanic and Zima, there were wholesale shifts in how society was perceived: the rise of the internet, pre-9/11 politics, and the paradoxical belief that nothing was more humiliating than trying too hard. Pop culture accelerated without the aid of a machine that remembered everything, generating an odd comfort in never being certain about anything. On a 90’s Thursday night, more people watched any random episode of Seinfeld than the finale of Game of Thrones. But nobody thought that was important; if you missed it, you simply missed it. It was the last era that held to the idea of a true, hegemonic mainstream before it all began to fracture, whether you found a home in it or defined yourself against it.
In The Nineties, Chuck Klosterman makes a home in all of it: the film, the music, the sports, the TV, the politics, the changes regarding race and class and sexuality, the yin/yang of Oprah and Alan Greenspan. In perhaps no other book ever written would a sentence like, “The video for ‘Smells Like Teen Spirit’ was not more consequential than the reunification of Germany” make complete sense. Chuck Klosterman has written a multi-dimensional masterpiece, a work of synthesis so smart and delightful that future historians might well refer to this entire period as Klostermanian.
Chuck Klosterman is the bestselling author of eight nonfiction books (including The Nineties; Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs; and But What If We’re Wrong?), two novels (Downtown Owl and The Visible Man), and the short story collection Raised in Captivity. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, Esquire, Spin, The Guardian (London), The Believer, and ESPN. Klosterman served as the Ethicist for The New York Times Magazine for three years and was an original founder of the website Grantland with Bill Simmons. He was raised in rural North Dakota and now lives in Portland, Oregon.
Chuck Klosterman is the bestselling author of eight nonfiction books (including The Nineties; Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs; and But What If We’re Wrong?), two novels (Downtown Owl and The Visible Man), and the short story collection Raised in Captivity. He has written for The New York Times, The Washington Post, GQ, Esquire, Spin, The Guardian (London), The Believer, and ESPN. Klosterman served as the Ethicist for The New York Times Magazine for three years and was an original founder of the website Grantland with Bill Simmons. He was raised in rural North Dakota and now lives in Portland, Oregon.