It’s downtown Owl, N.D.

There really isn’t much of a downtown, either.

There is a main street, though, and it is lined with bars.

High school kids cruise up and down it on weekends, drinking warm beer stolen from their dads.

It’s the sort of town where everyone knows everyone else and their business.

It’s also the sort of town where a high school teacher can impregnate students and no one says anything.

And it’s the sort of town where naming the school mascot the “Screaming Satans” causes an uproar.

In a town like Owl, old men drink coffee and talk about high school football, the weather and crops.

High school football legends inexplicably raise bison, and everyone has a nickname.

Owl, of course, is not technically real, but “Downtown Owl” is an accurate representation of most small, rural communities in 1983.

In his fifth book, but first novel, Chuck Klosterman (“Sex, Drugs, and Cocoa Puffs” “Killing Yourself to Live”) paints an often hilarious and always vivid portrait of small town America.

The story is told in first person by a revolving cast of characters.

There is Julia, the new teacher fresh out of college. She is new to town, but is quick to pick up the hard drinking ways of Owl residents. She immediately becomes the most sought-after woman in town.

And there is Horace, a septuagenarian and lifetime Owl resident. He is one of the coffee drinkers who meet every afternoon at the same café, and he sits in the same seat with the same men who discuss the same topics every single day.

And then there is Mitch, a high school junior that is easy to assume is based on Klosterman himself.

Mitch is a third-string quarterback who daydreams of torturing and killing his coach/English teacher, the one with the habit of impregnating 16-year-olds.

The characters have depth and seem exactly like the sort of people you would only meet in a small town.

Klosterman’s signature writing style runs rampant throughout the novel, giving it a conversational tone.

It is an honest, witty look at life, and it will resonate with anyone who grew up in a rural community where athletics are valued over academics and half the community is compromised of farmers.

The ending leaves a strange taste in your mouth as a blizzard strikes Owl, but it would not have felt as real if it ended any other way.

It is a must-read for Klosterman fans and small town kids alike.

(Photo from www.fantasticfiction.co.uk)

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