McSweeney's

FRIEND Too lazy right now to look at his notes for possible ideas; they're in the memobook he'd have to find first and in the insides of book jackets and covers of books he's been reading or recently read and which are in bookcases and on his night table and other places around the house. And...

H GOLD FEVER OD IS THE first on deck to see smoke. "That must be it," he says, pointing ahead to where the mountains rise up and pinch together to close off the channel. "Dyea." There is a rush then, stampeders running to the fore and jostling for position, climbing onto the bales of cargo...

INTRODUCTION by DAVE EGGERS PUBLISHING OTHER PEOPLE'S work is a hell of a lot more enjoyable than publishing your own. Publishing your own work is fraught with complicated, even tortured, feelings. Invariably you believe that you've failed. That you could have done better. That if you were...

DEAR McSWEENEY'S, I promised I'd be in touch soon after my last letter, but the year blinked past, time evaporated, and so I apologize that "soon" evidently means "more than a year." We're moving, that's one thing. Figuring that out has been taking a lot of time. Believe me, too, it brings out...

DEAR MCSWEENEY'S, Well, I've arrived here in Paris! McSwemey's first foreign correspondent! Haven't had a chance to leave the apartment yet, but I'm telling you, I simply cannot wait to tackle this amazing city! A dream come true! Very, very, VERY excited! Europe, here I come! MIKE SACKS PARIS,...

DAYDREAMS My memories come in negative. My mother had a box of photographs, but I don't recall ever seeing any of them. Instead, what I recall are her negatives: the orange-tinted strips of color film that she kept tucked in the developers' envelopes. Some of these envelopes she'd...

THE GUSHER by REBECCA CURTIS D ear Don Abrax, Hi. How are you? I imagine that you're staying inside your apartment in this rain. Also, yes! I'm sure you've your extra-large umbrella to keep you dry, should you be forced into the torrent by any particular need—for, say, the Sunday Times, or...

Chapter One CLAIRE I recall only one sentence that she said. She said it all the time. Every day was an occasion. If she had to be away on a shoot, she said it to my father. If I had to take cough syrup, she said it to me. She said it to the family dog before his operation. It was her wisdom....