In the tradition of John Jeremiah Sullivan and David Foster Wallace, Cheston Knappās Up Up, Down Down āis an always smart, often hilarious, and ultimately transcendent essay collectionā (Anthony Doerr, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of All the Light We Cannot See) that brilliantly explores authenticity and the nature of identity.
Daring and wise, hilarious and tender, Cheston Knappās āglitteringā (Leslie Jamison) collection of seven linked essays tackles the Big Questions through seemingly unlikely avenues. In his dexterous hands, an examination of a local professional wrestling promotion becomes a meditation on pain and his relationship with his father. A profile of UFO enthusiasts ends up probing his history in the church and, more broadly, the nature and limits of faith itself. Attending an adult skateboarding camp launches him into a virtuosic analysis of nostalgia. And the shocking murder of a neighbor expands into an interrogation of our cultureās prevailing ideas about community. Even more remarkable, perhaps, is the way he manages to find humanity in a damp basement full of frat boys.
Taken together, the essays in Up Up, Down Down amount to a chronicle of Knappās coming-of-age, a young manās journey into adulthood, late-onset as it might appear. He presents us with formative experiences from his childhood to marriage that echo throughout the collection, and ultimately tilts at what may be the Biggest Q of them all: what are the hazards of becoming who you are?
With āa firmly tongue-in-cheek approach to the existential crises of male maturity for the millennial generationā¦Knappās intelligent take on coming-of-age deserves to be widely readā (Publishers Weekly). āCompellingā¦Precise and laugh-inducingā (The New York Times Book Review), Up Up, Down Down signals the arrival of a truly one-of-a-kind voice.