Copyright © 1989 by David Shields

Publication of this volume is made possible in part by a grant provided by the Minnesota State Arts Board through an appropriation by the Minnesota State Legislature, and by a grant from the National Endowment for the Arts. Significant support has also been provided by Dayton’s, Mervyn’s, and Target stores through the Dayton Hudson Foundation, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation, the McKnight Foundation, the General Mills Foundation, the St. Paul Companies, and other generous contributions from foundations, corporations, and individuals. To these organizations and individuals we offer our heartfelt thanks.

Published by Graywolf Press
250 Third Avenue North, Suite 600
Minneapolis, Minnesota 55401
All rights reserved

www.graywolfpress.org

Published in the United States of America

ISBN 978-1-55597-274-5
Ebook ISBN 978-1-55597-030-7

2 4 6 8 9 7 5 3

Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 97-80079

The author would like to express his gratitude to the New York Foundation for the Arts and the Ludwig Vogelstein Foundation for fiction grants, and the Corporation of Yaddo, MacDowell Colony, Bread Loaf Writers’ Conference, Ragdale Foundation, Virginia Center for the Creative Arts, and Cummington Community of the Arts for residency fellowships.

Portions of this book were originally published in substantially different form in the San Francisco Chronicle (under the sponsorship of the PEN Syndicated Fiction Project), the South Carolina Review, James Joyce Quarterly, Turnstile, and Four Quarters.

A hardcover edition of this book was published in 1989 by Alfred A. Knopf.

First PERENNIAL LIBRARY edition published 1990.

Cover design: Scott Sorenson
Cover photograph: Mitch York, Tony Stone Images