'Down and Across' is a lively YA debut starring a self-doubting teen and a crossword-puzzle lover
In Down and Across, the crossword-themed young adult debut from Arvin Ahmadi, a teenager grapples with his own insecurities and struggles to live up to his parents鈥� expectations.
Flake, dabbler, dilettante, commitment-phobe, goldfish 鈥� call him what you will, Saaket 鈥淪cott鈥� Ferdowsi is the poster boy for decision fatigue and self-doubt. Everything he鈥檚 tried, he鈥檚 quit: hobbies, instruments, goals, even bowls of cereal.
His parents, both Iranian immigrants, wish he could buckle down and build his future, brick by brick. Since Scott apparently is incapable of passion or perseverance, his dad takes the reins.
The summer before Scott鈥檚 senior year, Mr. Ferdowsi sets up an internship at a university lab, where Scott is to perform laboratory rodent fecal analysis. (鈥淢ouse poop,鈥� Scott declares flatly.) When his parents fly to Iran to take care of a family health crisis, Scott stays behind for the internship.
One night, he goes on a Wikipedia spiral about Georgetown professor Cecily Mallard, grit-ologist and recipient of a MacArthur Fellowship (commonly known as a 鈥淕enius Grant鈥�). 鈥淭he single most reliable predictor of success is grit,鈥� she preaches. Keep grinding on long-term goals, even when you fail.
Scott becomes obsessed. 鈥淕rit became my magic potion: the cure to my constantly sidetracked train of thought,鈥� he raves. 鈥淚t was the gigantic anvil that would squash all my insecurities and pave the way for the rest of my life.鈥�
Within days, he bails on the internship and hops a bus from Philadelphia to Washington, D.C., planning to ambush Professor Mallard and get her gritty advice.
On the bus ride, he meets Fiora Buchanan, a GWU student and aspiring crossword constructor. Fiora, in her own way, is flailing and failing. She鈥檚 an interesting character who ultimately fell flat for me; more on that later.
Scott convinces Mallard to take him on as an unpaid, unofficial researcher, compiling bios of gritty historical figures while she writes her next book. At one point, Mallard admonishes Scott for viewing failure as a permanent state.
鈥淲hy would you get hung up over ... anything else you might have failed at?鈥� Mallard asks. 鈥淓verybody fails. We deal with failure and disappointment and other feelings that are far more damaging. That鈥檚 how you grow.鈥� It鈥檚 an excellent lesson for readers of all ages.
Ahmadi gives Scott a witty and self-conscious inner monologue. In a particularly funny turn, Scott鈥檚 thoughts turn all-caps upon entering a deafening basement nightclub.
By week three of four, you can practically feel Scott growing taller and standing straighter. He declares, 鈥淒.C. had given me a fresh start. It threw me into a cold washing machine, where I tumbled around a ruthless cylinder of rejection, but now I could feel the positive effects. All that insecurity and doubt were purged from the fabric of my future.鈥�
Now, let鈥檚 talk about Fiora Buchanan. Though her bartender friend Trent, the Southern Political Aspirant Ken to her Mixed-Up Daredevil Bohemian Barbie, repeatedly reminds us of Fiora鈥檚 struggle, her characterization inevitably veers into Manic Pixie Dream Girl [MPDG] territory.
鈥淚 couldn鈥檛 resist imagining my life as one of those coming-of-age movies,鈥� Scott daydreams on the bus, 鈥渁nd Fiora as the quirky, two-dimensional female character, written in solely to help me discover my full potential. The idea was nice.鈥�
Sorry, Mr. Ahmadi, but I鈥檓 calling it. When a male protagonist describes a female character thus 鈥� when he calls her a 鈥渃aricature of a real person鈥� with a 鈥渇ree-spirited, life-is-an-adventure-so-carpe-freaking-diem perspective鈥� 鈥� and when she seems to exist only for the guy鈥檚 purposes, I hold up an MPDG red card.
That being said, I鈥檓 an avid cruciverbalist, and a crossword-centric plot with a Will Shortz epigraph was too dreamy to ignore. Fiora draws beautiful parallels between human lives and crossword puzzles.
鈥淭he thing about life is we don鈥檛 get to draw the grid; we take the rows and columns we鈥檙e given,鈥� she says. 鈥淲hat we do get to do is fill the cells. And rather than filling mine with anxiety over medical school or Greek politics 鈥� instead of feeling trapped by my circumstance 鈥� I fill them with arbitrary words.鈥�
Consider this a sort of teenage 鈥淭he Secret Life of Walter Mitty鈥� or 鈥淎long Came Polly.鈥� (Apparently Ben Stiller should star in a movie version of this book.) 鈥淒own and Across鈥� is clever, brash, and punchy, rife with good advice and incisive commentary about parents鈥� expectations.
Due to scenes with underage drinking, drug use, and language, 鈥淒own and Across鈥� is best reserved for older readers.
