The Nineties: A Book
[Penguin Press – 2022]
To approach this tome as an exercise in nostalgia would be a mistake. What Klosterman does here is attempt to both explain what the last decade of the 20th century was about from a cultural/social/political standpoint and, in doing so, place that chronological span in context. But because he’s made a name for himself absorbing, studying and commenting on pop culture, it becomes the lens thru which his observations and conclusions are refracted. Hence, his analysis equally explores in that manner the significance of the Nirvana/Kurt Cobain phenomenon; sports; the political implications of Ross Perot and his 1992 presidential campaign; and the rise of the internet, for instance.
And while Klosterman is uniquely suited for a book of this
nature, one that acknowledges and mostly focuses on how the youth of the time—aka
Generation X, of which he is a member—were perceived and perceived themselves, he
comes across here not so much as a participant but more like a
well-sourced observer who knows the lingo, understands the vibe but isn’t really
that attached to any of it. At least not as closely as one would expect. However, this approach, as it turns out, was Klosterman's deliberate intention to remove himself from the narrative as much as possible, for fear of turning the book into a memoir and thereby compromising his original mission in this case.
Regardless, in the end, this was the book that Klosterman was meant to write. The Nineties is an interesting and, at times, fascinating look at not just what mattered to a generation of young adults of that time and place, but also the way they processed the world around them, and how particular views and stances adopted by Gen-X were brought on by circumstances surrounding them that could not or would not be duplicated today. (The concepts of authenticity and "selling out" come to mind.)
Klosterman has argued that the ‘90s are the last decade in American popular culture to have clearly delineated characteristics and identity, as opposed to the foggy interchangeability of the first couple decades of the 21st century. For many of us, who have lived through these last three decades as adults, that murkiness rings quite true.
