And with that, ten years of my life. Thanks go to my parents, for their enduring patience and sense of humor about all this. In Rochester, thank-yous to the original Winjas, responsible for much of my own sense of humor and more than a few private references in this book: Nick, Brad, Derek, Dan, Amie, Kris, Philippe, and Mike, who we have been unable to track down. In New England: Pete, Greg, Matt, Ben, Katie, Ian, Adam, Sabrina—I wouldn’t have gotten into metal or read David Foster Wallace or looked up court documents without you. In Gainesville: everyone on Team Dora for, if nothing else, the clutch viewings of “Pelts.”
Likewise, the Massachusetts Cultural Council came through when I’d given up. Thanks as well to Sabina Murray, Noy Holland, Sam Michel and John Wideman, who righted my brain fiction-wise. Infinite thanks to Leigh Newman, for her enthusiasm, criticism, insight and overall wonderfulness. And, obviously, thanks to everyone else at Black Balloon Publishing for believing in this book.
Bigger debts are owed to Grace Paley, whose writing profoundly changed mine, and whose story “The Little Girl” was in part a basis for the second-to-last chapter; Stanley Elkin, whose story “A Poetics for Bullies” I’ve been trying to write for years; George Saunders, Harold Brodkey and Amy Hempel, in general; and Judge Judy, for the line “I’m the boss, applesauce.”
Parts of “A Thing to Invest” and “Home of Triscuit” originally appeared in a short story called “A Thing to Invest,” which was published in Pleiades. Thanks to the editors. General information on Timothy McVeigh was obtained from articles published by The New York Times, The Washington Post and The Los Angeles Times. The excerpt of McVeigh’s letter, as quoted by Bambert Tolby, was taken from a 1997 article published in The Los Angeles Times. The line “I’ve been tried as one,” whose origins Nate cannot specifically place, is from The Simpsons.
Finally, thank you to Donna Wrublewski, for her very existence. In a book of in-jokes, my love for you is MegaBagelon-sized.