Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story
2006 paperback edition cover
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| Author | Chuck Klosterman |
|---|---|
| Country | United States |
| Language | English |
| Subject | Death, rock music |
| Publisher | Scribner |
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Publication date
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June 28, 2005 |
| Media type | Print (hardcover and paperback) |
| Pages | 256 |
| ISBN | |
| OCLC | 60684970 |
| 781.660973 22 | |
| LC Class | ML394 .K59 2005 |
| Preceded by | Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs: A Low Culture Manifesto |
| Followed by | Chuck Klosterman IV: A Decade of Curious People and Dangerous Ideas |
Killing Yourself to Live: 85% of a True Story is a work of non-fiction written by Chuck Klosterman, first published by Scribner in 2005. The title is a reference to the 1973 song Killing Yourself To Live, by the heavy metal band Black Sabbath. It is the third book released by Klosterman. Klosterman constructed the book around the premise of writing magazine feature about death, particularly deaths involving rock 'n roll stars. The actual feature, published in Spin in 2003, shares some ideas and language with the book.
The true meaning of Klosterman's search, however, often has little to do with the actual circumstances leading to said deaths, instead focusing on the existential implications and cultural realizations that result. To these ends, Klosterman engages on an "epic" road trip, visiting the death sites of rock stars such as Duane Allman and Kurt Cobain. In a rented Ford Taurus, which he nicknamed "Tauntaun", Klosterman runs into a variety of interesting circumstances and people along the way, such as a teenager in Missoula, Montana, who asks Mr. Klosterman to sell her some cannabis or a Cracker Barrel waitress who reads Kafka.
A very large part of the narrative rests on four women from Klosterman's past and present who embody abstractions that he loves (and are later compared to the four original members of KISS). In the same way that a rock star's death grants them a transcendence of anything that they may have embodied during the course of their life, so, too, these four women transcend their own effect on Klosterman to become the molds by which all other women will undoubtedly fall short.
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