Downtown Owl by Chuck Klosterman (2008, Unabridged, Compact Disc)

The best thing about Chuck Klosterman's novel, Downtown Owl, is that it reads exactly like a Chuck Klosterman book.
Klosterman's transition from cultural critic to novelist isn't always a smooth one. In his criticism, Klosterman tends toward matter-of-fact pronouncements, delivered in a voice that seems to say, "I have nothing invested in being 'right' about any of this."
It’s an evocative portrait of lives going nowhere, and that turns out to be both Owl‘s greatest flaw and its greatest strength. It may not be perfect, but, ultimately, Klosterman’s debut novel is a celebration of lives that normally go uncelebrated, the litmus test being whether we ourselves identify with these people who destinies are stuck in idle and have no hope of changing anytime soon.