{"product_id":"downtown-owl-9781416544197","title":"Downtown Owl","description":"\u003cb\u003eNow a major film! \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cb\u003e bestselling author and \"one of America's top cultural critics\" (\u003ci\u003eEntertainment\u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eWeekly\u003c\/i\u003e) Chuck Klosterman's debut novel brilliantly captures the charm and dread of small-town life.\u003c\/b\u003e \u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003eSomewhere in rural North Dakota, there is a fictional town called Owl. They don't have cable. They don't really have pop culture, but they do have grain prices and alcoholism. People work hard and then they die. But that's not nearly as awful as it sounds; in fact, sometimes it's perfect. Mitch Hrlicka lives in Owl. He plays high school football and worries about his weirdness, or lack thereof. Julia Rabia just moved to Owl. A history teacher, she gets free booze and falls in love with a self-loathing bison farmer. Widower and local conversationalist Horace Jones has resided in Owl for seventy-three years. They all know each other completely, except that they've never met. But when a deadly blizzard--based on an actual storm that occurred in 1984--hits the area, their lives are derailed in unexpected and powerful ways. An unpretentious, darkly comedic story of how it feels to exist in a community where local mythology and violent reality are pretty much the same thing, Downtown Owl is \"a satisfying character study and strikes a perfect balance between the funny and the profound\" (\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eAbout the Author\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003eChuck Klosterman is the bestselling author of many books of nonfiction (including \u003ci\u003eThe Nineties\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs, I Wear the Black Hat, \u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eBut What If We're Wrong?\u003c\/i\u003e) and fiction (\u003ci\u003eDowntown Owl\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eThe Visible Man, \u003c\/i\u003eand \u003ci\u003eRaised in Captivity\u003c\/i\u003e). He has written for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Washington Post\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eGQ\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eSpin\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Guardian\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe Believer, \u003c\/i\u003e \u003ci\u003eBillboard\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe A.V. Club\u003c\/i\u003e, and ESPN. Klosterman served as the Ethicist for \u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Magazine\u003c\/i\u003e\u003ci\u003e \u003c\/i\u003efor three years, and was an original founder of the website Grantland with Bill Simmons.\u003cbr\u003e","brand":"Scribner Book Company","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":50644546322706,"sku":"9781416544197","price":12.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0831\/4771\/8930\/files\/img_48caa978-1889-48cc-be9b-f7dc6bf44b32.jpg?v=1733114193","url":"https:\/\/surprise-castle.myshopify.com\/products\/downtown-owl-9781416544197","provider":"Surprise Castle","version":"1.0","type":"link"}