I Love Cereal; 21st Century Greek Tragedy? Not So Much [Books]

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto by Chuck Klosterman is the second of Klosterman’s four books and is just of series of unrelated essays. When I say these essays are unrelated, I’m not exaggerating. It starts of discussing whether the fictionalized love we see portrayed on TV has ruined our expectations for real love in our own lives. I was going to list many of the topics he discusses, but the point is, if you like Chuck’s writing, you’ll love this. If you don’t, this probably won’t change your mind about him.

A funny story about my purchase of this book. I go to bookstores all the time. And of the hundreds of times that I’ve done so, Holly has only accompanied me a few times–she puts quite a damper on my five book purchases. A few weekends ago, we went into a Borders after dinner (she wasn’t too excited about it). We looked around independently and then sat down together in the cafe with a few books each. Not surprisingly, Holly had a book on eating healthy, whereas I did not have any such books. Among my pile was this Klosterman work. After a while, we got up to leave, and I grabbed it to buy it. Holly said, “You’re buying that book?” “No doubt about it,” I said, “Why?” “It doesn’t look like a book anyone would read.” If Klosterman (technically, his publisher, I guess, eh, trench?–that’s a lot of commas!) was looking for an eyebrow raising title, it worked in my household. After purchasing it, Holly read it all the way home–more than I’ve seen her read in the last three years–and pronounced: “Eh.” But at least it got her reading.

The 2003 Pulitzer Prize winner (and Oprah Book Club selection, ugh) Middlesex by Jeffrey Eugenides is actually a well-written story. The first half chronicles an Greek family’s immigration to Detroit in the early 1920s and the first generation’s struggle to become assimilated and successful. The second half deals mostly with the birth and adolescence of the narrator, Calliope. I won’t give away the plot secret (though I doubt it’s a secret since it’s plastered all over the internet and maybe even on the back cover) here, but I thought this half–despite it’s great length–was left unresolved. Not my favorite book.

Finally, you may recall my recent lamentation about needing a vacation, preferably to Nevis. Well, it looks as though we’re going to go in a couple of months–if I don’t fall apart before then. So in the spirit of the Caribbean, I picked up Herman Wouk’s comedy Don’t Stop the Carnival. Published in 1965, it’s set on fictional Amerigo island and tells the story of Norman Paperman, a New York publicist, who falls in love with the Caribbean lifestyle so much that he buys a hotel and chaos ensues. Funny and entertaining, it certainly got me in the mood to get out of Dodge.