Fargo Rock City - by Chuck Klosterman (Paperback)

About the Book

Powered by a sharp and wholly original voice, Klosterman delivers a real-life "High Fidelity" in this savvy, deliriously funny memoir of growing up a shameless heavy-metal devotee in 1980s North Dakota.

Book Synopsis

The 25th anniversary edition of Chuck Klosterman's debut, a hilarious memoir of growing up as a shameless metalhead in Wyndmere, North Dakota (population: 498), empirically proving that no matter where you are, kids wanna rock--now with a new introduction from the author.

With a voice like Ace Frehley's guitar, Klosterman hacks his way through hair-band history, beginning with that fateful day in 1983 when his older brother brought home Mötley Crüe's Shout at the Devil. The fifth-grade Chuck wasn't quite ready to rock--his hair was too short and his farm was too quiet--but he still found a way to bang his little head. Before the journey was over, he would slow-dance to Poison, sleep innocently beneath satanic pentagrams, lust for Lita Ford, and get ridiculously intellectual about Guns N' Roses. C'mon and feel his noize.

Review Quotes

"Writing about American pop culture doesn't get any better than this, or any funnier, or any more readable. If you love rock & roll, you will love Fargo Rock City." --Stephen King

"This is what Lester Bangs would have written had he been a farmboy raised on a diet of Skid Row and Kiss. Unfailingly smart and demonically opinionated." --Kirkus

"Klosterman uses refreshingly candid language: reading his debut is like overhearing a drunk discussion between two music fans." --The Library Journal

About the Author

Chuck Klosterman is the bestselling author of ten 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, Esquire, Spin, The Guardian, The Believer, and ESPN. Klosterman served as the Ethicist for The New York Times Magazine 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.