Auster - I thought my father was God: and other true stories from NPRs National Story Project

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Contents

, Linda Elegant

, Yale Huffman

, Simonette Jackson

, Judith Beth Cohen

, Patricia L. Lambert

, Edith S. Marks

, Eric Wynn

, Suzanne Stroh

, Will Coffey

, Barry Foy

, Kelly ONeill

, Ron Fabian

, Corki Stewart

, Michael Oppenheimer

, Janet Schmidt Zupan

, Steve Lacheen

, Bill Calm

, Edith Riemer

, Kristine Lundquist

, Mark Snyder

, Raymond Barry

, Jerry Hoke

, Beverly Peterson

, Marcus Rosenbaum

, Lauren Shapiro

, Carol Sherman-Jones

, Don Graves

, Dick Bain

, Gordon Lee Stelter

, Fr. Keith Clark

, Robert M. Rock

, Robert McGee

, Marie Johnson

, Barbara Hudin

, John Keith

, Stan Benkoski

, Lucy Hayden

, Miriam Rosenzweig

, Jack Fear

, Fred Muratori

, Charlie Peters

, Eric Brotman

, Edwina Portelle Romero

, Anna Thorson

, Laura Braughton Waters

, Jane Adams

, Rick Beyer

, Heather Atwood

, Martha Russell Hsu

, Jeanine Mankins

, Christine Kravetz

, I. Z.

, Joe Miceli

, Mary Grace Dembeck

, Beth Kivel

, Joan Wilkins Stone

, Mel Singer

, Nancy Wilson

, G. B.

, Jim Furlong

, Joan Vanden Heuvel

, Eugene OBrien

, Jennifer Pye

, Jerry Yellin

, Tony Powell

, Holly A. Heffelbower

, Freddie Levin

, Randy Welch

, Alice Owens-Johnson

, John Flannelly

, Joe Rizzo

, Carl Brooksby

, Catherine Austin Alexander

, John Brawley

, Beth Twiggar Goff

, Dana T. Payne

, Ludlow Perry

, Josh Dorman

, Marc Mitchell

, R. C. Van Kooy

, Saul Isler

, Clayton Eshleman

, Erica Hagen

, Katie Letcher Lyle

, Mary Ann Garrett

, Rachel Watson

, Paul K. Humiston

, Sylvia Seymour Akin

, Adolph Lopez

, Bruce Edward Hall

, Lion Goodman

, Juliana C. Nash

, Michael Kuretich

, Grace Sale Wilson

, Mary Parsons Burkett

, Harold Tapper

, Gisela Cloos Evitt

, Mieke C. Malandra

, Jeanne W. Halpern

, Paul Ebeltoft

, Bill Helmantoler

, Robert C. North and Dorothy North

, Willa Parks Ward

, Robert Winnie

, Reginald Thayer

, Lloyd Hustvedt

, Morton N. Cohen

, Donald Zucker

, David Ayres

, Doreen Tracey

, Maria Barcelona

, Steve Hale

, Theodore Lustig

, Kristina Streeter

, C. W. Schmitt

, Bev Ford

, Alex Galt

, Lori Peikoff

, Suzanne Druehl

, Earl Roberts

, Karen Cycon Dermody

, Susan Sprague

, Bill Froke

, Laura McHugh

, John Wiley

, Ann Davis

, Alvin Rosser

, Nicolas Wieder

, Sharli Land-Polanco

, Sara Wilson

, Randee Rosenfeld

, P. Rohmann

, Ellise Rossen

, Frank Young

, Joel Einschlag

, Olga Hardman

, Linda Marine

, Sherwin Waldman

, Martha Duncan

, Judith Englander

, David Anderson

, G. A. Gonzalez

, Dr. G.

, Tim Gibson

, Jodie Walters

, Nancy Peavy

, Tom Sellew

, Brian F. McGee

, Ellen Powell

, Hollie Caldwell Campanella

, Matthew Menary

, Steve Harper

, Jam es Sharpsteen

, V. Ferguson-Stewart

, Jack Edmonston

, Steve Hodgman

, Stew Schneider

, Kara Husson

, Richard R. Rosman

, Vicky Johnson

, Grace Fichtelberg

, Mary McCallum

, Timothy Ackerman

, Jeff Raper

, Lynn Duvall

, Donna M. Bronner

, Bob Ayers

, Thomas Corrado

, Tanya Collins

, Eileen OHara

, Dede Ryan

, John Howze

, Carolyn Brasher

, Mark Gover

, Sandra Waller

, Roger Brinkerhoff

, Arizona, B.C

, Tim Clancy

, Ameni Rozsa

I NTRODUCTION

I NEVER INTENDED TO DO THIS . The National Story Project came about by accident, and if not for a remark my wife made at the dinner table sixteen months ago, most of the pieces in this book never would have been written. It was May 1999, perhaps June, and earlier that day I had been interviewed on National Public Radio about my most recent novel. After we finished our conversation, Daniel Zwerdling, the host of Weekend All Things Considered, had asked me if I would be interested in becoming a regular contributor to the program. I couldnt even see his face when he asked the question. I was in the NPR studio on Second Avenue in New York, and he was in Washington, D.C., and for the past twenty or thirty minutes we had been talking to each other through microphones and headsets, aided by a technological marvel known as fiber optics. I asked him what he had in mind, and he said that he wasnt sure. Maybe I could come on the air every month or so and tell stories.

I wasnt interested. Doing my own work was difficult enough, and taking on a job that would force me to crank out stories on command was the last thing I needed. Just to be polite, however, I said that I would go home and think about it.

It was my wife, Siri, who turned the proposition on its head. That night, when I told her about NPRs curious offer, she immediately came up with a proposal that reversed the direction of my thoughts. In a matter of thirty seconds, no had become yes.

You dont have to write the stories yourself, she said. Get people to sit down and write their own stories. They could send them in to you, and then you could read the best ones on the radio. If enough people wrote in, it could turn into something extraordinary.

That was how the National Story Project was born. It was Siris idea, and then I picked it up and started to run with it.

* * *

Sometime in late September, Zwerdling came to my house in Brooklyn with Rebecca Davis, one of the producers of Weekend All Things Considered, and we launched the idea of the project in the form of another interview. I told the listeners that I was looking for stories. The stories had to be true, and they had to be short, but there would be no restrictions as to subject matter or style. What interested me most, I said, were stories that defied our expectations about the world, anecdotes that revealed the mysterious and unknowable forces at work in our lives, in our family histories, in our minds and bodies, in our souls. In other words, true stories that sounded like fiction. I was talking about big things and small things, tragic things and comic things, any experience that felt important enough to set down on paper. They shouldnt worry if they had never written a story, I said. Everyone was bound to know some good ones, and if enough people answered the call to participate, we would inevitably begin to learn some surprising things about ourselves and each other. The spirit of the project was entirely democratic. All listeners were welcome to contribute, and I promised to read every story that came in. People would be exploring their own lives and experiences, but at the same time they would be part of a collective effort, something bigger than just themselves. With their help, I said, I was hoping to put together an archive of facts, a museum of American reality.