New items are available at the Hancock County Public Library.
“Up Up, Down Down,” by Cheston Knapp
In “Up Up, Down Down,” Cheston Knapp’s collection of seven linked essays tackles the big questions through unlikely avenues. 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 the nature and limits of faith. Attending an adult skateboarding camp launches him into an analysis of nostalgia. The murder of a neighbor expands into an interrogation of our culture’s prevailing ideas about community and the way we tell the stories of our lives. Taken together, the essays in “Up Up, Down Down” amount to a chronicle of Knapp’s coming-of-age, a young man’s journey into adulthood. He presents us with formative experiences from his childhood to marriage that echo throughout the collection, and ultimately touches on what may be the biggest question of them all: what are the hazards of becoming who you are?
