End of the Jews (39 page)

ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

Thanks to my grandfather Benjamin Kaplan; my great-uncle and great-aunt, Philip and Esther Kaplan; Victor and Juliet Brudney; and Daniel and Pearl Bell for allowing me to pester them about such things as City College cafeterias, Bronx stickball rules, and 1930s subway routes. To Elvin and Keiko Jones for taking me on the road and giving me the chance to learn everything I know about jazz and opening wine bottles. To Andre C. Willis for facilitating that invaluable experience, and countless others. To Delfeayo Marsalis and Ashley Kahn for answering my esoteric questions about prebop trap sets. To KET for his continued expertise on all matters aerosol. To Professor David Goldberg for vetting the manuscript for historical accuracy. To Eddy Port-noy for providing 1930s Jewish slurs. To David and Lenka Siroky for fact-Czeching. Get it? Get it? To Daniel Alarcón and Vinnie Wilhelm for their invaluable comments on early drafts. To the Giants of Science for bringing violent retribution back to literature. To my cousin Matthew L. Kaplan, for brewing me many cups of extremely strong Brazilian coffee during one particularly grueling stretch of editing. To my father, Charlie Mansbach, for his newpaperman's ability to quote from memory the particulars of any news event concurrent with his lifetime, and my mother, Nancy Mansbach, whose zeal for researching truly random shit has not diminished despite a lengthy absence from the newsroom. To superagent Victoria Sanders, who bears no resemblance to the agent portrayed in this book. To everyone at Spiegel & Grau/Doubleday Broadway, and in particular my brilliant editor, Chris Jackson, for holding up his half of our endless and endlessly productive conversations. And to Victoria Häggblom for love, patience, editorial guidance, and putting up with me.

ALSO BY ADAM MANSBACH

Angry Black White Boy

Shackling Water

genius b-boy cynics getting weeded in the garden of delights
(poetry)

A Fictional History of the United States with Huge Chunks Missing
(editor)

PUBLISHED BY SPIEGEL
&
GRAU

Copyright © 2008 by Adam Mansbach

All Rights Reserved

Published in the United States by Spiegel & Grau, a division of Random House, Inc., New York.

www.spiegelandgrau.com

SPIEGEL & GRAU
is a trademark of Random House, Inc.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author's imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, events or locales is entirely coincidental.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Mansbach, Adam, 1976–

The end of the Jews: a novel/Adam Mansbach.—1st ed.

p.          cm.

1. Jews—United States—Fiction. 2. Authors—Fiction. 3. Family—Fiction. 4. New York Region—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3613.A57E53 2007

813'.6—dc22

2007019465

eISBN: 978-0-385-52568-8

v3.0