Fargo Rock City : A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota [Paperback]

Chuck Klosterman (Author)

Product Details

• Paperback
• Publisher: Scribner (2001)
• ASIN: B000WL5OJE
• Average Customer Review: 3.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (81 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #9,562,992 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Chuck Klosterman is a New York Times bestselling author and a featured columnist for Esquire, a contributor to The New York Times Magazine, and has also written for Spin, The Washington Post, The Guardian, The Believer, and ESPN.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

8 of 8 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Great Read, June 29, 2005

By 

Jim M. (Springfield MA) - See all my reviews
(VINE VOICE)   

This review is from: Fargo Rock City : A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota (Paperback)

I'm the same age as Chuck Klosterman, grew up in the same period. All that time, I HATED heavy metal. I knew all the bands he writes about, remember seeing kids wearing the T-shirts and having the names written on jean jackets, but I HATED the music.

All that aside:

I LOVED THIS BOOK!

The book is a series of essays about Chuck growing up and being a fan of different heavy metal groups. Going through artists careers, talking about the best CDs of the era, why the groups were popular, and how grunge killed them off.

You don't have to be an ex-metalhead to love this book. His writing is infectious.

I'll be honest, I only picked this up after reading his other two books (FARGO ROCK CITY is his first), and it is just as much fun as those others.

Will it make you rethink heavy metal? Maybe not. In recent years, I've begun to rethink it a bit, if only because I realize the current music scene makes heavy metal seem not so bad anymore. Plus, enough time has passed to make you seem nostalgic about some of these groups. But, this book probably won't make you run out and buy all the Poison or Motley Crue CDs.

It is just a whole lot of fun to read.

15 of 18 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Chuck is a Rock God -- Honestly, June 17, 2003

By 

Robert Wellen (CHICAGO, IL USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fargo Rock City : A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota (Paperback)

At first, I was a bit disappointed by the book and then I read the epilogue. Why wasn't it more of a memoir? Why was it filled with so much analysis? Then, I realized that isn't really the point of this wonderful book. Klosterman has made me a fan for life. What wins me over his unbashed honesty. I've long held that the lowest critic life form is that of rock critic. Klosterman calls them on their pretension. He hammers away at what I have always believed is that music is important if it touches you. My MP3 collection has Sinatra and Warrant. Who cares who is better, both form the soundtrack to important parts of my life. Klosterman tells some hilarious stories and his takes on music and life is so refereshingly honest that I can't stop smiling. He isn't mean or nasty--just tells it as he sees it. DOn't agree? That's ok. I learned more than I ever imagined about '80s heavy metal (some which I finally realized I liked about 10 years too late) and I suspect I would have gotten more out of the book if I had understood all the references, but I loved what I read anyway. Except for the passage where he compares the Gospels to GNR Lies, this book really does rock. Isn't that the most important thing?

10 of 12 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A Metal Manifesto (or No Apologies), April 24, 2001

By 

Robert M. Ethington Jr. (Akron, Ohio USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fargo Rock City: A Heavy Metal Odyssey in Rural North Dakota (Hardcover)

This funny and enjoyable book is an answer to the pop culture elitists (such as myself!) who dismiss heavy metal as ridiculous junk. By relating the social and personal impact of metal on himself and his friends growing up in rural North Dakota, Klosterman makes a compelling case that this music has an importance and meaning far beyond how it compares musically and lyrically to Dylan, The Beatles, Springsteen, and other ordained members of the Rock Canon. The sprawling text is part memoir, part free-thinking criticism, part record guide, and always hilarious.

I guess that FARGO ROCK CITY falls somewhere between Dave Eggers and Chuck Eddy, but it's really too sui generis to be so glibly catagorized. This book is for the "Rocker within us all"! Check it out....