Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs (review: 3.5/5)

I don’t know how Chuck Klosterman can get away with it. In his recent book Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto, he presents some of the most scattered, whimsical, subjective, and infuriatingly delightful musings on pop culture. The collected essays cover the gamut, jumping from the Lakers/Celtics rivalry, Pamela Anderson, the life of a Van Halen tribute band, and one on the classic afternoon television show of my generation, Saved by the Bell, and more.
So we’ve got 200 pages of chatty memoir and Gen X riffing. It’s such a good balance of over-the-top opinion and declaration (e.g. “The desire to be cool is‚Äîultimately‚Äîthe desire to be rescued” or, “Clearly, video technology cages imagination”) that doesn’t so much convince but overwhelms with torrential amusement. Despite the thorough, detailed pop culture analyses, what Klosterman really does well is the personal side of things. Maybe that’s my human-ness speaking, but his writing about his own experiences is when his stories really pick up, whether it’s being fired from coaching Little League or discovering a bit of Life’s Meaning from playing the Sims videogame. If only there were more of it.