I owe thanks to many people for bringing this book to life. I am very lucky to have such a brilliant and fun agent as Suzanne Gluck. Thank you, Suzanne, for turning to page one and starting to read. Thank you also to Bill Clegg, Laura Bonner, and everyone else at William Morris Endeavor for your help. My editors Lindsay Sagnette and Beth Coates improved this book enormously with their incisive comments and perfectly apportioned doses of love—thank you, both, so much. Thank you also to Julie Barer and Reagan Arthur for all your encouragement and advice.
Thank you to my father, Brendan Kennedy, whose unflagging devotion gave me the confidence to start writing, and whose ceaseless hounding induced the guilt necessary to finish. Thank you to my mother, Cynthia Kennedy, whose constant love and support resulted in a book that any mother would be ashamed of. To my brother, Dave, I need only say: Good times.
Thank you to Daniel Socolow, my wonderful mentor and friend, whose pointed critiques of gender inequality caused me to think about the issue early, often, and more creatively than I might otherwise have done. And thank you to the Honorable Miriam Goldman Cedarbaum, who set an example for me not only with respect to intelligence and personal integrity, but for what true accomplishment is in the world.
I never would have been able to create a friend like Freddy if I didn’t have the following gifted, loyal, and vivid women in my life: Emily Chiang, Elena Goldstein, Andrea Jedrlinic, Diane Macina (it’s alphabetical, get over it), and Dru Moorhouse. Thanks, ladies!
And of course and above all, thank you to Joshua Ferris, whose enthusiasm, unwavering faith, and gentle yet relentless criticism made this book possible, and to whom I am so very happy and so unbelievably privileged to be able to say “I do” every single day of my life.