The Up-down: A Novel

Description

Following the death of his mother, Lula Pace Fortune Ripley, Pace decides to close his construction business and leave his home in New Orleans to undertake an unorthodox religious pilgrimage. Intrigued by the Up-Down, a mystical fifth direction mythologised by ancient cultures, Pace sets out on a search for the centre of consciousness. Pace's voyage is a sweeping, voracious human tale that takes no prisoners, witnesses extreme brutalities and expresses a childlike amazement. Here the route goes across America, but the geography he is charting is always first and foremost unchartable.

The author of more than forty works of fiction, nonfiction, and poetry, which have been translated into over twenty-five languages, BARRY GIFFORD writes distinctly American stories for readers around the globe. From screenplays and librettos to his acclaimed Sailor and Lula novels, Gifford's writing is as distinctive as it is difficult to classify. Born in the Seneca Hotel on Chicago's Near North Side, he relocated in his adolescence to New Orleans. The move proved significant- throughout his career, Gifford's fiction-part-noir, part-picaresque, always entertaining-is born of the clash between what he has referred to as his "Northern Side" and "Southern Side." Gifford has been recipient of awards from PEN, the National Endowment for the Arts, The American Library Association, the Writers Guild of America and the Christopher Isherwood Foundation. His novel Wild at Heart was adapted into the 1990 Palme d'Or-winning film of the same name. Gifford lives in the San Francisco Bay Area.

"The Up-Down is so beautifully written. It's Barry Gifford poetry. It's right next door to perfection." -David Lynch "The Up-Down rockets along at a breakneck pace. Gifford is a master of the set piece in the tradition of Nelson Algren: larger-than-life characters, ribald dialogue and an uninhibited spirit that seesaws between the profound and the profane. . . . While Pace wonders whether he's left his mark, Gifford doesn't have to: The legacy of Sailor and Lula is as satisfying as it is strange."-Jim Ruland, Los Angeles Times "The Up-Down ... is Gifford's most philosophical novel ... a journey through the underworld-though it is decidedly sexier and more colorful than Dante's." -Molly Boyle, Los Angeles Review of Books "I was operating under the mistaken belief that Pace's story could never rival my affection for Sailor and Lula and yet... I love The Up-Down. I was floored by the humor, (seemingly off-the-cuff) wisdom and poignant tone that is infused through this epic story. The character's dreams--always a strong suit--have somehow become even more vivid."-Sebastian Gutierrez, writer of the films Gothika and Snakes on a Plane, and writer/director of the film Judas Kiss. "The Up-Down, Barry Gifford's final installment in the legendary Sailor and Lula series, is a one-of-a-kind marvel, full of humor, tragedy, and great mystery. Always inventive, always daring, Gifford's novel thoughtfully depicts the necessity of love in a new century marked by mankind's capacity for violence and cruelty. A brilliant coda to the defining love story of the last twenty years."-Joe Meno, author of Office Girl and The Great Perhaps "With an impressive gift for deftly crafting a complex and interwoven but always entertaining novel, Barry Gifford's unique style of writing is as impressive as it is compelling."-Micah Andrews, Midwest Book Review "The Up-Down can be seen as a coda to the [Sailor and Lula] books, or even a koan of sorts, to underscore the fact that life is not logical or comprehensible and it can only be understood intuitively, experientially."-Jim Ewing, Jackson Clarion-Ledger "With his breakout novel, "Wild at Heart," Berkeley author Barry Gifford started the saga of Sailor Ripley and his wife, Lula Pace Fortune. The book, which was adapted into a feature film by director David Lynch, spawned a series: the turbulent lives of Gifford's "Romeo and Juliet of the South" were featured in seven subsequent novels and novellas. Both characters are dead now, but their names live on in Gifford's latest, his 20th novel and 57th book. It's about Pace, the son of Sailor and Lula. At 58 years old, living in New Orleans, Pace embarks on a kind of spiritual journey-the "up-down" of the title-traveling to Illinois, Wisconsin, Wyoming and finally to North Carolina, where his parents' story began. Searching for elusive truths, haunted by strange dreams and violent encounters, he writes his own version of his parents' life, even as he attempts to reconcile his own. Gifford's a romantic at heart, and this volume brings Sailor and Lula's epic to a-perhaps-bittersweet end."-Georgia Rowe, Oakland Tribune