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An Exact Replica of a Figment of My Imagination_ A Memoir - Elizabeth McCracken [52]

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true: time did split in half, and in some back alley of the universe I took care of Pudding, when he was a tiny baby, and this reminds me of that. There’s a strange museum/gift shop/antique store/tourist trap in Schuylerville, New York, the next town over. In front is a reconstruction of colonial Fort George done in wood cutouts — a soldier in stocks, Revolutionary soldiers in profile, all cut with a jigsaw and painted in bright colors. In front is a sign that says: An exact replica of a figment of my imagination, and that is what this life feels like some days. It’s a happy life, but someone is missing. It’s a happy life, and someone is missing.

It’s a happy life —

— Saratoga Springs, New York

June 2007

Acknowledgments


Henry Dunow, my friend and agent, read the manuscript in its earliest state, and was — as he has been for the nearly twenty years I have known him — so smart and kind I cannot describe it, nor adequately thank him for it.

I also want to thank Paul Lisicky, whose reading made all the difference to me (and whose friendship likewise does); Ann Patchett, of course and as usual; Wendy Owen; and Betsy Lerner.

More thanks to: Reagan Arthur, Oliver Haslegrave, Jayne Yaffe Kamp, and everyone at Little, Brown.

I hope my gratitude for everything else and to everyone else is legible in the pages of this book.

Elizabeth McCracken is the author of The Giant’s House, which was nominated for the National Book Award; Niagara Falls All Over Again, winner of the PEN/Winship Award; and Here’s Your Hat What’s Your Hurry, a collection of stories. She has received grants and awards from the Fine Arts Work Center in Provincetown, the National Endowment for the Arts, the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Guggenheim Foundation, and the American Academy in Berlin.

Table of Contents

Also by Elizabeth McCracken

Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Chapter 20

Chapter 21

Chapter 22

Chapter 23

Chapter 24

Chapter 25

Chapter 26

Chapter 27

Chapter 28

Chapter 29

Chapter 30

Chapter 31

Chapter 32

Chapter 33

Chapter 34

Chapter 35

Chapter 36

Chapter 37

Chapter 38

Chapter 39

Chapter 40

Chapter 41

Chapter 42

Chapter 43

Acknowledgments

About the Author

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