Craig Chester’s witty and wry observations on his life and those who have occupied it come together to create this funny, sentimental, yet irreverent collection of essays. From the backroads of Texas to the boardrooms of Hollywood, Craig Chester is unabashedly honest about the pain and the unique rewards of remaining an outsider in an insider’s world. While his family prepares to watch the apocalypse from their rooftop with a bucket of KFC, Craig is trying to climb the social ladder at school by saving his neighbors from their sinful ways and speaking in tongues (with not-so-successful results). Along the way Craig experiences gender confusion at grade-school summer camp and has massive reconstructive surgery to correct his deformed teenage face, only to emerge and realize that Hollywood success isn’t always measured in externals, but also in the machinations of the heart and how much you don’t show. All along he expertly captures the feeling of what it’s like to not always fit in—and have that be okay—with a comic timing that’s tuned in to the heart and soul of trying to get by day to day. His tales of life, from growing up in the Bible Belt to starring in nine films, prove that the average American life is anything but normal.

Why the Long Face?: The Adventures of a Truly Independent Actor

Chester, Craig

Humor & Entertainment

L.A. Weekly Books

If you are a fan of David Sedaris or Augusten Burroughs you're going to love Craig Chester. With a laugh on nearly every page, Chester encapsulates his life growing up in the bible belt to being crowned the king of independent cinema into seventeen pitch perfect comic essays that like-it-or-not are all real experiences from his life. If you're embarrassed to laugh-out-loud in public read this book at home. Includes trips in a conversion van with a backseat porto-potty! Speaking in tongues! Apocalypse watching with buckets of KFC! S*!% throwing monkeys! Pureed Thanksgiving dinner. Diana Ross! Alien abduction! And a healthy dose of throwing up.

Biographies & Memoirs

Arts & Literature

St. Martin's: Griffin

Adam and Steve met in the 1980s, a time of big hair and bad drugs. Their initial encounter didn't go well, so it's just as well they don't remember. But now they meet again, both a little older although not much smarter-and with a lot more baggage. Adam and Steve follows the trajectory of a relationship that started like a joke and just kept getting funnier. With the help of their friends, formerly obese stand-up comic Rhonda and straight-guy ladies man Michael, Adam and Steve struggle to make love work in the face of almost overwhelming obstacles, including a dog with an eating disorder, accident-prone parents, roving homophobes and the nagging feeling they've met before. Actor Craig Chester has adapted his own screenplay for the new film of the same name.

Adam & Steve

Alyson Books

Adam and Steve met in the 1980s, a time of big hair and bad drugs. Their initial encounter didn't go well, so it's just as well they don't remember. But now they meet again, both a little older although not much smarter-and with a lot more baggage. Adam and Steve follows the trajectory of a relationship that started like a joke and just kept getting funnier. With the help of their friends, formerly obese stand-up comic Rhonda and straight-guy ladies man Michael, Adam and Steve struggle to make love work in the face of almost overwhelming obstacles, including a dog with an eating disorder, accident-prone parents, roving homophobes and the nagging feeling they've met before. Actor Craig Chester has adapted his own screenplay for the new film of the same name. Opening in spring 2005 around the country, the film stars Chester, Malcolm Gets, Parker Posey and Chris Kattan. Craig Chester is an actor (Swoon, Kiss Me Guido, Frisk, I Shot Andy Warhol) and author (Why the Long Face?). He lives in New York City.

Literature & Fiction

Alyson Pubns

Open City features a dynamic mix of prominent writers, undiscovered aspirants, and lost treasures from writers of past eras. Including fiction, essays, poetry, and artwork by an exciting range of talents, Open City has presented new works by Michael Cunningham, Deborah Garrison, Rick Moody, David Foster Wallace, Geoffrey O'Brien, Sam Lipsyte, Meghan Daum, David Berman, and previously unpublished work by Delmore Schwartz, Richard Yates, Edvard Munch, and Ford Madox Ford. Praised in the pages of publications such as Harper's Bazaar, Library Journal, and The New York Times, Open City is today's most important literary journal. Open City #14 includes John Seabrook on ancestor hunting; Arthur Nersessian, from Fuck-Up to makeup; new fiction by Betsy Bern and Martha McPhee; and the original treatment for the improvised cult-classic film Waiting for Guffman.

Open City 14

BEY, Hakim

Pinchbeck, Daniel

Brownstein, Michael

Berrigan, Anselm

Holland, Noy

Beller, Thomas

Yas, Joanna

Reference

Grove Press, Open City Books

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Chester, Craig. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Chester, Craig