He looked at the message quizzically and pressed the VIEW button.
His body went still when he saw the image, and then the thirty-six-dollar soup he’d had for dinner gurgled in his stomach and spewed over the bed, the floor, the phone and its Snapchat:
The body of a naked girl that looked like his ex-girlfriend, Grace, was splayed on a twin dorm-room bed. She had a tie around her neck, and her eyes were heavily made up, staring, dead, at the camera. Words had been printed at the bottom of the photo that read:
I’m Hooked, how about you?
The image was from an unidentified user and hung for another fifteen seconds on the vomit-splattered screen before it disappeared.
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
The first version of The Underwriting appeared in the spring of 2014 as a twelve-part weekly serial on www.theunderwriting.com, accompanied by music, photography and various other experiments in digital presentation. Above all, I want to thank the readers of that original incarnation—you were the most patient critics and the most uplifting friends, and your e-mails, tweets and participation meant more than you will ever know.
I’d also like to thank those who made the original work what it was, in particular Brooke Botsford, John Crepezzi, Justin Shenkarow, Meredith Flynn, Si Domone, Hayden Wood, Dom Hammond, Alexandra Warder and Jarrett McGovern. It’s hard to describe how powerful it was to work with you to bring the story to life through your own media. I remain humbled and inspired by your talents and your willingness to share them with me.
For taking the story and making it a bona fide novel I am indebted to my agent, Sloan Harris (and Heather Karpas). Your understanding and articulation of my work and your belief in this project are the greatest motivators.
If I had written down everything I hoped for in an editor, it wouldn’t have skimmed the surface of what I’ve found in Tara Singh Carlson. Your notes in every way elevated the text, and your belief in and commitment to its publication have been the cause of much skin-tingling. I am so deeply thankful, and excited to think that this is the first of many journeys together.
Very broadly, I’d like to thank Wall Street and the Silicon Valley for supplying a steady stream of content that fed the development of this book. You were the grand affair of my twenties: I loved you fanatically and hated you with equal fervor. I’m still not sure who broke up with whom, or if we’ll ever really be able to be friends, but I’ll defend you to the death, and hope I’ve done you justice here.
I also want to thank Harriet Clark, Tom Kealey and the Stanford undergrads who let me—a very sketchy business school student—crash their Intro to Creative Writing seminars in 2010/11. You were all so rad, and I hope you never forget it.
For keeping the story straight, I am indebted to Henry Davis and Grace Sterritt for their IPO tutorials; Jon Levy and Bill Guttentag for their early notes; the baristas at The Smile and Euphorium Bakery for the endless coffee refills; and the various unsuspecting men on Tinder who enlightened me on the dynamics of app dating by flirting with my (super-hot) avatars.
As much as I’d like to deny it, there is a lot of me in this book, and a lot of the clumsy, raw emotion of leaping from one path to another. There are no words to describe my gratitude to the friends who held my hand and had my back during that jump, but I want to publicly thank them here: Eli Berlin, Carey Albertine, Cristina Alger Wang, Jessica Balboni, Panio Gianopolus, Dan Kessler, Adam Ross, Daniel and Cheryl Lilienstein, Jay Backstrand, Laura Davis, Nick Hungerford, Asif Qasim, Jim Mellon, Ross Lavery, the Sete crew, Matthew Murray, Molly Barton, Bruce Rosenblum, Richard Villiers, Stephen Hartley, Ashleigh Pattee, Noah and Elizabeth Lang, Jessie Borowick, Elisabeth Gray, Emily Cherry Bentley, Karlygash Burkitbayeva, Artem Fokin, Eric Kinariwala, Jessica Burdon, Tom Lee, Olaolu Agana, Moudy Youssef and Julio de Pietro. If any of you are ever having a bad day, please call me so I can remind you what a difference you’ve made, and how deeply grateful I am for your presence in my life.
Not at all least, I want to thank my godmother, Mary Ann Rice, my sister, Stephanie, and my mom and dad. Any words wouldn’t do it justice: I am just so very glad you are you, and thankful for the ways you are always there for me. I love you so very much.
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