Dresden was waiting patiently to finish our conversation. She looked down at her bilious creation. “You’re right,” she said. “My pies suck. But look at all the friends I’ve made, Willis, because of them! Think about it.”
Then we went out together for a couple of beers, Dresden and I—we left the pie on Holly’s desk, and I, not being one to backtrack in a snowstorm, left the rabbit ears behind me.
I wish to thank the following individuals for their generous assistance and editorial and/or moral support: Lois Sortedahl, Dawn Seferian, Nan Graham, Laurie Frank, John Irving, Leo Braudy, Dorothy Braudy, Lynne McMahon, Cathy Bos, Andrew Fishmann, M.D., M. E. Loree Fishmann, Lee Shallat, Michael Ryan, Mimi Kennedy, Stuart Dawrs, Wendi Robbins, Martha Millard.
I especially want to thank David Dukes, for love, support, patience—and for driving me to Todi.
About the Author
Carol Muske-Dukes is the author of eight books of poems, four novels, and two essay collections, and is an editor of two anthologies, including Crossing State Lines: An American Renga, which she coedited with Bob Holman. Many of her books have been New York Times Notable selections. Muske-Dukes is a professor of English and creative writing at the University of Southern California, where she founded the PhD program in creative writing and literature, and she recently fulfilled her appointment as poet laureate of California, appointed by the governor’s office. Her poetry collection Sparrow was a National Book Award finalist and she is a six-time Pushcart Prize winner. She writes for the New York Times Book Review and the New York Times op-ed page, the Los Angeles Times, the Huffington Post, and the New Yorker’s Page-Turner blog. Her poems have been published and anthologized widely, including in several editions of Best American Poetry. Muske-Dukes has been the recipient of a Guggenheim Fellowship, a National Endowment for the Arts grant, a Library of Congress award, Barnes & Noble’s Writer for Writers Award, and many other honors. She lives in Southern California and New York.
All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.
Grateful acknowledgement is made for permission to reprint an excerpt from “A Boy Like That” by Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim. © 1957 Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim (renewed). All rights controlled by Chappell & Co. and Amberson Enterprises. All rights reserved. Used by permission.
Copyright © 1989 by Carol Muske-Dukes
Cover design by Neal Alexander Heacox
978-1-4804-8480-1
This edition published in 2014 by Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.
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