Working Stiff

by Grant Stoddard

—Jessica Cutler, author of The Washingtonienne

  “Peek under the dirty sheets of Stoddard’s hilarious debut, and you’ll find a brave, moving, and, yes, seductive story of a young man’s struggle to find his way in a strange city, a foreign country, and an unforgettable age.”

  —David Goodwillie, author of

  Seemed Like a Good Idea at the Time

  Credits

  Cover design by Gregg Kulick

  Cover photograph by Clayton James Cubitt

  Copyright

  I have changed the names of some of the individuals, and modified identifying features, including physical descriptions and occupations, of other individuals in order to preserve their anonymity. In some cases, composite characters have been created or timelines have been compressed, in order to further preserve privacy and to maintain narrative flow. The goal in all cases was to protect people’s privacy without damaging the integrity of the story.

  Portions of this book first appeared on Nerve.com in an altered form.

  WORKING STIFF. Copyright © 2007 by Grant Stoddard. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

  EPub Edition © DECEMBER 2006 ISBN: 9780061863608

  Version 05312013

  Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publicatin Data

  Stoddard, Grant.

  Working stiff / Grant Stoddard.—1st Harper Perennial ed.

  p. cm.

  ISBN: 978-0-06-087612-8

  ISBN-10: 0-06-087612-3

  10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1

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