Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs

A Low Culture Manifesto

by Chuck Klosterman

Paperback, 272 pages

English language

Published June 22, 2004 by Scribner.

ISBN:: 978-0-7432-3601-0

(28 reviews)

"Countless writers and artists have spoken for a generation, but no one has done it quite like Chuck Klosterman. With an exhaustive knowledge of popular culture and an almost effortless ability to spin brilliant prose out of unlikely subject matter, Klosterman attacks the entire spectrum of postmodern America: reality TV, Internet porn, Pamela Anderson, literary Jesus freaks, and the real difference between apples and oranges (of which there is none). And don't even get him started on his love life and the whole Harry-Met-Sally situation.

Whether deconstructing Saved by the Bell episodes or the artistic legacy of Billy Joel, the symbolic importance of The Empire Strikes Back or the Celtics/Lakers rivalry, Chuck will make you think, he'll make you laugh, and he'll drive you insane--usually all at once. Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is ostensibly about art, entertainment, infotainment, sports, politics, and kittens, but--really--it's about us. All of us. As Klosterman realizes late at night, in the moment before he falls asleep, "In and of itself, nothing really matters. What matters is that nothing is ever 'in and of itself.'" Read to believe." --Back cover.

3 editions

technicat reviewed Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

A bit too mean for book-length, a few chapters will do.

2 stars

I picked this book up fittingly in a discount music store, and found it amusing in a crude snarky way but stopped halfway through the book and halfway through the chapter ranting about soccer, being a former youth soccer player myself, it was either too much or too much on the nose. I like to indulge in a we were the best generation as much as the next GenX-er, but GenX at its most annoying (when we're not running terrible tech companies or being the characters in Reality Bites) is ironically tearing itself down.

reverse reviewed Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

Review of 'Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs' on 'Goodreads'

3 stars

I'd be lying if I said this book did not absorb me. I devoured it in a few days, which I rarely do. It's an easy read, even though I wasn't familiar with all the popular culture items referenced inside. And let's face it, Chuck is eloquent, smart, kinda funny, and his observations are usually interesting.

Which is not to say they are not total bullshit. I mean, all this would be nice to listen to over dinner, if your conversational partner didn't have any illusions about its severity and weight. But to actually take it as social commentary, would be like trying to balance an elephant on top of a house of cards. The guy is throwing around dubious or outright false premises like a drunkard would swing a two handed sword -- causing damage without really understanding what he's doing, and destroying trees in the process.

I am …

Ikwezi reviewed Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

Review of 'Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs' on 'Goodreads'

2 stars

Klosterman is intermittently hilarious but overall the book reads as dated as he (at one point) expressly fears that it will.

ascagnel reviewed Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs by Chuck Klosterman

Review of 'Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs' on 'Goodreads'

4 stars

Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs is little more than what its name presents it as: A Low Culture Manifesto. SD&CP constantly challenges the reader to completely re-evaluate how they look at modern culture, since modern culture is usually consumed and discarded with out much of a second glance. Although it is an entertaining read, Klosterman never comes to a final crescendo, and so on completion there is an empty feeling created by a sense of unfulfilled greater importance or meaning.