Acknowledgments

I owe profound debts of gratitude to the following people: Binnie Kirshenbaum, who was the first to believe in this book and its best friend from the very start; Amanda Urban, without whose marvelously unstinting aid and insight nothing would have been possible; Susan Kamil and Noah Eaker at the Dial Press, the best editors a writer could dream up in her wildest fancies; YiLing Chen-Josephson and Nell Freudenberger, who read the manuscript with kind and clear eyes; and Andrés Colapinto, for services extraordinary that can never be repaid and are appreciated to the depths of my being. It’s been a long road, brotha. I’d also like to thank my family; all of the Colapintos; Nora von Hagen and Herr Prof. Arne Blum; and Irene Cheng and Nikki Columbus, who taught me a great deal about friendship. The songs of Stephin Merritt sustained and delighted me during the writing of this book. In memoriam Carlo Martino, 1972–2003.