A book review of The Nineties: a Book by Chuck Klosterman
Stars: ****
Penguin Books (2022)
Popular Culture
370 pages
Disclosure: This post contains affiliate links.
Summary: It was long ago, but not as long as it seems: The Berlin Wall fell and the Twin Towers collapsed. In between, one presidential election was allegedly decided by Ross Perot while another was plausibly decided by Ralph Nader. Landlines fell to cell phones, the internet exploded, and pop culture accelerated without the aid of technology that remembered everything. It was the last era with a real mainstream to either identify with or oppose. The ’90s brought about a revolution in the human condition, and a shift in consciousness, that we’re still struggling to understand. Happily, Chuck Klosterman is more than up to the job.
In The Nineties, Klosterman dissects the film, the music, the sports, the TV, the pre-9/11 politics, the changes regarding race and class and sexuality, the yin/yang of Oprah and Alan Greenspan, and (almost) everything else. The result is a multidimensional masterpiece, a work of synthesis so smart and delightful that future historians might well refer to this entire period as Klostermanian.
The Nineties
This book wasn’t exactly what I was expecting but it was still interesting. In the 90s I was ages 7-16 so a lot of what was going on I knew little about. Especially American politics since I’m Canadian. I remember hearing a lot of those names but never knew who they were or what they were doing as a teen.
I think if there wasn’t so much American politics the book would have been better. As a kid of the 90s I’d rather read about Tamogatchis then politics. If like me though, you weren’t as aware of what was going on in the world as teens are today, then you can recap what happened in the 90s that was big or important.
The book is on the longer end to me (370 pages) with smaller text so it took a bit to read. It was nice reminiscing about the 90s though.
Buy The Nineties from Amazon.com