"Somewhere in North Dakota, there is a town called Owl that isn't there. Disco is over but punk never happened. They don't have cable. They don't really have pop culture, unless you count grain prices and alcoholism. People work hard and then they die. They hate the government and impregnate teenage girls. But that's not nearly as awful as it sounds; in fact, sometimes it's perfect.

Chuck Klosterman's Downtown Owl is the unpretentious, darkly comedic story of how it feels to exist in a community where rural mythology and violent reality are pretty much the same thing. It's technically about certain people in a certain place at a certain time...but it's really about a problem. And the problem is this: What does it mean to be a normal person? And there is no answer. But in Downtown Owl, what matters more is how you ask the question."

-Back-cover blurb of Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman.

just finished this book. i didn't enjoy it as much as the pop culture essays in his other nonfiction books. his writing style doesn't quite adapt to fiction, though i still loved the utter honesty and shrewd take on the world that klosterman does so well. this book also does such a great service to owl, north dakota, depicting it simultaneously as a unique place that could be anywhere. the ending, though somewhat rushed and forced, was appropriate for the book and, really, it couldn't have ended any other way - with 2 of the 3 main characters dying.