I'm Glad About You (46 page)

How old am I?
she wondered. For a moment, she couldn’t quite remember. The last time she’d talked to Ryan, there was some discussion of shaving a few years off. You turn thirty, no one wants to know about it. What did it matter? Surely starting over was something that life would insist on, one time or another. She dug into her bag for the keys to her rental car. In spite of everything, the world was still new.

acknowledgments

For the support of my wonderful agent Loretta Barrett, I thank the stars. This novel could not have been written without her unfailing confidence in it and me. When she succumbed to cancer, Nick Mullendore, her second in command, stepped forward and his wisdom and coolheaded nerve have informed all aspects of this book. Thanks to him and also to Laura Van Wormer for reminding me not to give up five minutes before the miracle.

I have had singular luck with my editors, although that too was an odyssey. Shaye Arehardt quite literally called this book into being. When I came to Putnam, it was under the guidance of the great Amy Einhorn, then Liz Stein steered the ship. I thank them all. My fourth editor, Tara Singh Carlson, has been a startling reminder why we don’t, in fact, give up five minutes before the miracle. It is because someone like Tara might actually just show up.

The edgy intelligence of Theodore Blumberg, lawyer and literary adviser, stands, as always, behind me. Marisa Smith likewise stands behind me in so many ways I can’t even figure them all out. John Weidman consistently refuses to let me throw my brain out the window. Eric Holmes lived through so much of the murky background of this book, his DNA is everywhere in it. It is a privilege to know them all, and I cannot live without any of them.

I thank Louise Krakower for her insights into the Navajo language. I thank my parents for raising me well. I thank my many siblings for their idiosyncrasies and their tribal wit. I thank my husband, Jess Lynn, my son, Cooper Lynn, and my daughter, Cleo Lynn, for being my family. Living with a writer is a peculiar task. They never fail at it.

In 2011, Theresa Rebeck was named one of the 150 Fearless Women in the World by
Newsweek
. She has had more than a dozen plays produced in New York, including
Omnium Gatherum
(co-writer), for which she was a Pulitzer Prize finalist, and the
New York Times
has referred to Rebeck as “one of her generation’s major talents.” She was the creator of the NBC drama
Smash
and has a long history of producing and writing for major television and film successes. She is the author of
Three Girls and Their Brother
and
Twelve Rooms with a View
. She has taught at Brandeis and Columbia and lives in Brooklyn with her family.

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