From the kid who brought youFargo Rock City-- the first book in history to garner the praise of Stephen King, David Byrne, Donna Gaines, Sebastian Bach, Jonathan Lethem, and Rivers Cuomo -- comesSex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs-- the first book in history to examine breakfast cereal, reality television, tribute bands, Internet porn, serial killers, and the Dixie Chicks.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 a seemingly effortless ability to spin brilliant prose out of unlikely subject matter. Whether deconstructingSaved by the Bellepisodes or the artistic legacy of Billy Joel, the symbolic importance ofThe Empire Strikes Backor the Celtics/Lakers rivalry of the 1980s, Chuck will make you think, he'll make you laugh, and he'll drive you insane -- usually all at once.Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffsis ostensibly about movies, sports, television, music, books, video games, 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.'" Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

There's a lot more cold cereal than sex or drugs in Klosterman's nostalgic, patchy collection of pop cultural essays, which, despite sparks of brilliance, fails to cohere. Having graduated from the University of North Dakota in 1994, Klosterman (Fargo Rock City) seems never to have left that time or place behind. He is an ironically self-aware, trivia-theorizing, unreconstructed slacker: "I'm a `Gen Xer,' okay? And I buy shit marketed to `Gen Xers.' And I use air quotes when I talk.... Get over it." The essay topics speak for themselves: the Sims, The Real World, Say Anything, Pamela Anderson, Billy Joel, the Lakers/Celtics rivalry, etc. The closest Klosterman gets to the 21st century is Internet porn and the Dixie Chicks. This is a shame, because he's is a skilled prose stylist with a witty, twisted brain, a photo-perfect memory for entertainment trivia and has real chops as a memoirist. The book's best moments arrive when he eschews argumentation for personal history. In "George Will vs. Nick Hornby," a tired screed against soccer suddenly comes to life when Klosterman tells the story of how he was fired from his high school summer job as a Little League baseball coach. The mothers wanted their sons to have equal playing time; Klosterman wanted "a run-manufacturing offensive philosophy modeled after Whitey Herzog's St. Louis Cardinals." In a chapter on relationships, Klosterman semi-jokes that he only has "three and a half dates worth of material." Remove all the dated pop culture analyses, and Klosterman's book has enough material for about half a really great memoir. Agent, Daniel Greenberg. (Aug. 26) Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information. From: Reed Elsevier Inc. Copyright Reed Business Information

Chuck Klosterman, currently a music, film, & culture critic for Ohio's "Akron Beacon Journal", began his career with "The Forum" in Fargo, North Dakota. He lives in Akron, Ohio, where he once consumed nothing but McDonald's Chicken McNuggets for seven straight days. Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.

1 This is Emo (carnivore interlude)	p. 1
2 Billy Sim (reality interlude)	p. 12
3 What Happens When People Stop Being Polite (Pat Benatar interlude)	p. 26
4 Every Dog Must Have His Every Day, Every Drunk Must Have His Drink (Monkees = Monkees interlude)	p. 42
5 Appetite for Replication (an interlude to be named later)	p. 56
6 Ten Seconds to Love (metaphorical fruit interlude)	p. 71
7 George Will vs. Nick Hornby (Ralph Nader interlude)	p. 86
8 33 (Fonzie recalibration interlude)	p. 97
9 Porn ("kitty cat as terrorist" interlude)	p. 109
10 The Lady or the Tiger (hypothetical interlude)	p. 119
11 Being Zack Morris (50-50 interlude)	p. 135
12 Sulking with Lisa Loeb on the Ice Planet Hoth (anti-homeless interlude)	p. 149
13 The Awe-Inspiring Beauty of Tom Cruise's Shattered, Troll-like Face (punk interlude)	p. 159
14 Toby over Moby (Johnny Cash interlude)	p. 174
15 This Is Zodiac Speaking (Timothy McVeigh interlude)	p. 187

Distributed by Syndetic Solutions, Inc.