PRAYER FOR POP
Twisted on the gist of Christ
against the beat of Raw Power
twisted on the twist of nice
you tore another (a)hole
in the beat blood senseless
Ann Arbor night, right
before “Search and Destroy.”
“Somebody’s got to save
my soul, somebody’s got
to save my soul…”
[Eugene Allen, August 20, 1973]
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
I would like to thank those veterans who, one way or another, shared their stories as I was writing this book — in particular Chet Lubeck and Gerald McCarthy.
And thanks to those who gave me support along the way: The Guggenheim Foundation, Jonathan Franzen, Jamie Quatro, Rebecca Nagel, Andrew Wylie, Mitzi Angel, Will Wolfslau, Donald Antrim, Rodger Stevens, Joanna Goodman, David Patterson, Frank and Holly Bergon, Eric Chinski, and Laird Gallagher.
Finally, I’d like to thank my father, who died before I finished but who — I hope and pray — would’ve seen that this was written in the spirit of via negativa. His belief in the wider cosmology, in the before and the after, in the permanence of grace as the fundamental light in the darkness of existence, is the gift that keeps him alive in me.
A NOTE ABOUT THE AUTHOR
David Means was born and raised in Michigan. He is the author of four story collections, including The Spot; Assorted Fire Events, which was a finalist for the National Book Critics Circle Award and the winner of the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for fiction; and The Secret Goldfish, which was short-listed for the Frank O’Connor International Short Story Prize. His stories, which have recieved numerous honors, including two O. Henry Prizes and two Pushcart Prizes, have been translated into ten languages. He was a recipient of a Guggenheim Foundation Fellowship in 2013. You can sign up for email updates here.