By Cara Jepsen
Hornburg revisits the land of his youth in his new coming-of-age novel, Downers Grove, which he’ll read from at Barbara’s Bookstore on Wells Tuesday. It’s told from the perspective of 17-year-old Chrissie–short for Crystal Methedrine–Swanson, a character Hornburg loosely based on his sister and her friends. Chrissie is a sharp but angst-ridden high school senior who fights with jocks and nearly gets raped, moons over a gas station attendant, and frets about her future. Her doped-up brother rarely leaves the basement, and her mother has taken up with a Bible-thumping used-car salesman. Plus Chrissie’s worried about the senior curse: one member of the class typically dies before graduation.
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These days Hornburg works a day job as a managing editor at Grove Atlantic. “The book world is a different scene entirely. When you’re in music it’s like a trashy crowd, all working-class kids trying to work their way up to stardom. I was turning 30 and couldn’t do it anymore. This was a more genteel pursuit. Literary parties are only from six to eight.”
Art accompanying story in printed newspaper (not available in this archive): photo/Charles Eshelman.
