Bruce Jay Friedman: 16 books

A few years ago, Christopher Buckley wrote of Bruce Jay Friedman in the New York Times Book Review that he "has been likened to everyone from J. D. Salinger to Woody Allen," but that "he is: Bruce Jay Friedman, sui generis, and no mean thing. No further comparisons are necessary."...

"Like a Twilight zone with Charlie Chaplin"–Mario PuzoWriter, screenwriter, playwright, editor, actor, teacher: Bruce Jay Friedman has done it all, charming the glitziest industries of American golden-age culture for more than half a century. Lucky Bruce is his long-awaited memoir, and it's...

An “irresistible” collection of short fiction by an author who “has been likened to everyone from J. D. Salinger to Woody Allen” (The New York Times Book Review).   Hailed by Newsweek as “a bona fide literary event,” The Collected Short Fiction of Bruce Jay Friedman brings together dozens...

A ridiculously funny novel about a devoted single dad who becomes an international hit man from the author of A Mother’s Kisses After losing his job as a poultry distributor, William Binny spends his mornings at the local diner polishing off a cheap breakfast and perusing the local paper....

A pencil-pushing policeman becomes a badass sleuth in this off-the-wall detective story from one of America’s funniest writers Kenneth LePeters (née Sussman) is a “quasi-dick.” A public relations man for homicide bureaus, he carries a half-size badge and keeps his pearl-handled Smith...

The New York Times–bestselling author finds the pulse of the aging American male in two ingeniously funny novels. “I just laughed myself sick” (Neil Simon).   Two classic works of comic self-help fiction by “one of the funniest writers in America” available together for the first time in...

First published in 1962, Bruce Jay Friedman’s acclaimed first fiction novel, Stern, tells the story of a young Jewish man who relocates his family from the city to the suburbs, where they are besieged by voracious caterpillars and a bigotry that ranges from the genteel snub to outright confrontation. “An...

A brilliant new collection from one of American literature’s most original and hilarious purveyors of dark comedy Silenced by the horrors of Nazi Germany, a Jewish satirist is inspired to write again by his biggest fan: Joseph Goebbels. A retired English teacher dies on the operating table...

Grove Press continues the reissue of Bruce Jay Friedman's critically acclaimed fiction with two classic novels by the comedic genius. Friedman's first novel, Stern, tells the story of a young Jewish man who relocates his family from the city to the suburbs, where they are besieged by voracious caterpillars and a bigotry that ranges from the genteel snub to outright confrontation.

An indefatigable, irresistible, and wildly inappropriate Jewish mother takes her 17-year-old son to school in this uproarious coming-of-age comedy Tall and scattered-looking, Joseph has just graduated from high school and is ready for college. But is college ready for him? Apparently not,...

Oscar-nominated screenwriter and accomplished playwright Bruce Jay Friedman is back with a compilation of some of his selected works. With sharp, black comedy and a punch of wit, his plays have delighted audiences since the 1960s and earned him rave reviews from The New York Times and The New Yorker....

In this laugh-out-loud travelogue, an average American man journeys to a country unlike any other: 1980s Japan Early one morning, Mike Halsey leaves his sleeping girlfriend and his house deep in the woods to go out and buy the morning paper. His favorite deli is closed, so he keeps driving...

Three Balconies brings together 17 new stories by the celebrated humorist, vintage Friedman all. In sumptuously simple language, the language of the street, the bar, the store, the office, Friedman gives us a collection of moral fables that explores friendship and faith and failure unswervingly, yet with compassion and, as always, tremendous humour.

This classic comic novel about a midlife man whose life is spiraling out of control is a “heartbreaking delight . . . Nothing less than a joy” (The Washington Post Book World).   Screenwriter Harry Towns, a bicoastal playboy with a broken marriage and a child he rarely sees, has been reveling...