This little nightmare started with the dream the narrator describes in the middle of the piece. It’s one in a series of dark little stories that started as nightmares; I’ve never been much for the surrealist project, though I do like Nathaniel West and Barbara Gowdy quite a lot. It was a useful exercise to try building a story around a dream; it helped me loosen out of the straitjacket I put on when I write, cinched up by too much Carver and Cheever and Updike.
