Acknowledgments
"Migration over Gruel" first appeared in Black Warrior Review. "Christmas in Gruel" first appeared in 20 Over 40. "Soldiers in Gruel" and "Scotch and Dr Pepper" first appeared in the Chattahoochee Review. "Assurance" and "What Attracts Us to Gruel" first appeared in River City. "The Novels of Raymond Carver" first appeared in Ninth Letter. "Bluffs" and "Recovery" first appeared in Arkansas Review. "The Opposite of Zero" first appeared in A Dixie Christmas. "Polish" first appeared in Shenandoah. "Snipers" first appeared in the Raleigh News & Observer. "Lickers" first appeared in the Kenyon Review. "Shirts Against Skins" first appeared in Verb. "Slow Drink" first appeared in Epoch. "What If We Leave?" first appeared in They Write Among Us. "John Cheever, Rest in Peace" first appeared in the Georgia Review.
I would like to thank Liz Darhansoff, crocodile-wrestler and agent par excellence; Julie Marshall, Lynn Pierce, Tricia van Dockum, Dan Janeck, Patty Berg, and even André Bernard at Harcourt; my friends Scott Gould and Michael Parker; certainly the hardworking editors at the magazines and anthologies where these stories first appeared; brave and feisty Don O'Briant; Jim Dees and Ron Shapiro for watching my back; above all else, to Glenda Guion.
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