Boonville (33 page)

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Authors: Robert Mailer Anderson

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“Here's a souvenir,” he said. “Don't bother making a cross.”

“I won't,” Sarah said, walking to her truck and propping the squirrel on the dashboard.

John remained standing in front of the cabin wearing her lucky red hat, flanked by the two giant sculptures. Sarah closed her door and started the truck, leaning her head out the window and looking back before she drove away, her blue eyes appearing as if they had never seen a tear.

“Take care, Squirrel Boy,” she called out. “You're a local now.”

John watched the truck pull out of his driveway, heading for the winding road that led to the floor of the Anderson Valley and then into, and out of, the town of Boonville. He turned to go back inside, but stopped on the steps of his cabin to take another look at the view and the backs of Grandma's squirrels, reflecting briefly on the last two weeks and the changes they had brought into his life, understanding he lived here now, this was his home, and thinking to himself, “Yee-haw.”

Acknowledgments

I would like to thank my wife, Nicola, my son, Dashiell, and my daughter, Lucinda, who mean everything to me.

And my friends for their love, strength, inspiration, and support, without which this novel would never have been completed: Mathieu Salgues, Tony Barbieri, Joshua Jennings, Stephen Hulburt, Jason Leggiere, Shawn Phillips, Joe Lucas, Leonardo, Awadagin Pratt, Jonathan Lethem, Klas EklÃ¶f, and Jay Leahy.

And my father and mother for naming me Mailer and getting the ball rolling. My brother and sister, Wayne and Margaret. My Papa. My entire family, especially Bruce, Ling, Zack, Jessica, and Ben. Penny Scanlon, Joy Andrea Larkin, Judy Bernhard, and Byron Spooner. My other sisters, Erin Hurley and Sarah Morrissette. Also, Christina McKay, Bobby Blanchard, Creedence Perkins, and Tom Avvakumovits.

Mary Miner, Luke and Justine, and the memory of Robert Miner.

Laura Jones, for restoring my faith in life.

And the rest of The Tribe, especially Luisa Smith, Tom Stoen, Margaret Hirsh, Timothy “Speed” Levitch, Barry Sherman, Coltrane Gardner, Rod Werner, Jana Giles, Mary Ellen Tseng, Tom Whelan, Jay Berry, Mark Ganter, Sean Foley, Scott and Georgia Thunes, Stacey Hubbard, Geoff Wolf, Darcy West, Dan O'Conner, Walker, Mart Bailey, Andy Shen, Chris Ellinger, Steve Werlin, Mike and Helena Crane, Sunyata Palmer, the Horowitz family, Donovan Dutro, Paul Ricci, Mark Vronin, and Nick Carr.

The Miami boys, especially Jimmy Glover, Jason Schrift, Brian Wojcik, and Jay Walsh.

Quotidian Gallery, Caffe Valeska, Caffe Trieste, The Columbus Hotel (a.k.a. the Hotel Tevere), Books Revisited, Tosca, the 92nd Street Y, the Presidio YMCA, and the Cypress Quartet.

And Elvis Costello, Tom Waits, Randy Newman, Bruce Springsteen, Coleman Hawkins, Lester Young, Los Lobos, Lucinda Williams, Bob Wills, Cole Porter, John Hiatt, Lyle Lovett, Willie Nelson, Merle Haggard, Waylon Jennings, Janis Joplin, Billie Holiday, the Cowboy Junkies, Beethoven, Bach, Wagner, and the San Francisco Opera for supplying the music.

And to Shelby Hearon, Bill and Em Smith, Norman Mailer, Christina Garcia, Carl Hiaasen, Isabel Allende, Calvin Trillin, Naomi Wolf, Paul Sigenlaub, Jim Stonebreaker, Judith McNally, Alex Peer, Ray Rossen, and Ranney Johnson, whose support and kind words kept me on track when I really needed them.

The
Anderson Valley Advertiser
and
Christopher Street
for publishing my work. And the Northern California Independent Booksellers Association for believing in
Boonville
, and selling it.

My agent, Jack Scovil. Creative Arts Book Company, especially Josh and Emma. HarperCollins, especially Alison Callahan. And Laura Joplin.

And the memory of Michael Arevedo.

And the town of Boonville.

And Panther Pride.

About the Author

R
OBERT
M
AILER
A
NDERSON
was born in San Francisco in 1968, three years before his parents were divorced. He was the fifth generation of his familyâa clan comprised largely of railroad workers, San Quentin prison guards, and tamale vendorsâto be raised across the Golden Gate Bridge in San Rafael. He spent every other weekend and summers with his father in Mendocino County, reading, playing sports, and accompanying his father to his business, a home for juvenile delinquents, where young Anderson encountered some “hard cases” who were later convicted of, among other crimes, armed robbery, rape, and murder. One former resident, David Mason, was executed by the state. Several others are on death row.

At age fourteen, Anderson moved in with his father “full time” and, due to financial constraints, the group home. He started high school in Ukiah, where he was routinely kicked out of classes. He took a year off from school and played golf. He developed a gambling habit. He began contributing articles to the
Anderson Valley Advertiser
, where his uncle, Bruce Anderson, was editor and publisher. Eventually, he graduated from Anderson Valley High School in Boonville. He played three varsity sports and was MVP of the NCL III in baseball. He was student body president until he was impeached.

Pursuing a career in baseball, Anderson matriculated to the University of Miami, where he did not play. He was then transferred to the College of Marin, where he pitched and played first base for a semester and a half before packing his possessions into the trunk of a “borrowed” Cadillac, cashing his student loan check, and heading to Mexico.

When the money ran out, he moved to New York City, where he had a series of unfulfilling jobs: selling suits, telemarketing, moving furniture, and temping. He did stand-up comedy, once. He played basketball at West Fourth Street. He was accepted into a creative writing tutorial taught by Shelby Hearon at the Ninety-second Street Y.

In 1995, Anderson's short story “36-28-34-7” was published by
Christopher Street
. He began referring to himself as “the heterosexual voice of gay lit.”

Anderson lives in San Francisco with his wife and two children, son Dashiell and daughter Lucinda. He is co-owner of Quotidian art gallery and is on the board of the San Francisco Opera Association.
Boonville
is his first novel.

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www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.

Copyright

“
I never saw a moor
” and “
Surgeons must be careful
” reprinted by permission of the publishers and the Trustees of Amherst College from THE POEMS OF EMILY DICKINSON, Thomas H. Johnson, ed., Cambridge, Mass.: The Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, Copyright © 1951, 1955, 1979 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College.

“Second Fig” by Edna St. Vincent Millay. From
Collected Poems
, HarperCollins. Copyright 1922, 1950 by Edna St. Vincent Millay. Reprinted by permission of Elizabeth Barnett, Literary Executor.

Hardcover publication of this book was made possible by a grant from the Creative Work Fund.

A hardcover edition of this book was published in 2001 by Creative Arts Book Company. It is here reprinted by arrangement with Creative Arts Book Company.

BOONVILLE
. Copyright © 2001 by Itzy. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, downloaded, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

First Perennial edition published 2003.

Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data

Anderson, Robert Mailer.

Boonville / Robert Mailer Anderson.—1st Perennial ed.

p. cm.

ISBN 0-06-051621-6

1. Inheritance and succession—Fiction. 2. California, Northern—Fiction. 3. Young men—Fiction. 4. Hippies—Fiction. I. Title.

PS3601.N546 B6 2002

813'.6—dc21

2002027590

EPub Edition © SEPTEMBER 2012 ISBN: 978-0-06-203442-7

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