Really just one agent these days, though there are several at the firm

who occasionally get involved in my life. When I first started

writing, I had a manager first, who helped me get the agent. Which is

what they do, I think, because he never did anything again except take

15 percent of me dough. (That’s not quite true, of course, and we

parted on good terms.) But most people at more or less my level have

at least agent/lawyer/business manager, and sometimes a manager as

well. It’s crazy.

As for Rahm, I never met him. But Ari and the aforementioned manager

did introduce me to Maxine Waters. This was at a Clinton fundraiser

in 92, in my, ahem, younger days.