{"product_id":"9781555847869","title":"The Collected Short Fiction of Bruce Jay Friedman","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn “irresistible” collection of short fiction by an author who “has been likened to everyone from J. D. Salinger to Woody Allen” (\u003ci\u003eThe New York Times Book Review\u003c\/i\u003e).\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e Hailed by \u003ci\u003eNewsweek\u003c\/i\u003e as “a bona fide literary event,” \u003ci\u003eThe Collected Short Fiction of Bruce Jay Friedman\u003c\/i\u003e brings together dozens of the \u003ci\u003eNew York Times\u003c\/i\u003e–bestselling author’s greatest stories, which originally appeared in \u003ci\u003eEsquire\u003c\/i\u003e, \u003ci\u003eThe New Yorker\u003c\/i\u003e, and other magazines.\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Readers who feel short stories are too high-flown—too literary, arcane, and serious—will find counterbalance in Friedman, whose stories have uncomplicated structures, obvious gists, intelligible metaphors, and unambiguous endings and come wrapped in humor. This compilation of his output in the short story form between 1953 and 1995 has a thematic arrangement, with categories such as ‘Mother,’ ‘Crazed Youth,’ and ‘Sex.’ Some of the more outstanding pieces are ‘The Subversive,’ about the narrator’s air force buddy whom the narrator believed to be the most all-American guy he ever met until his friend commits a crazed act; ‘The Gent,’ concerning a man who succumbs to a seduction by his best friend’s daughter; and ‘The Night Boxing Ended,’ in which ringside heckling goes way out of bounds.” —\u003ci\u003eBooklist\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “From poignant bildungsroman to sly satire, from wicked comedy to surrealistic farce, this virtuosic collection covers more than four decades’ worth of short stories . . . Friedman explores themes such as loneliness, aging, fear, parenthood and ethnicity, spinning tales in an expertly modulated voice.” —\u003ci\u003ePublishers Weekly\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Friedman [is] more interesting than most of Malamud, Roth, and Bellow . . . What makes him more important is that he writes out of the viscera instead of the cerebrum.”  —Nelson Algren, \u003ci\u003eThe Nation\u003c\/i\u003e\u003cbr\u003e  \u003cbr\u003e “Pure delight.” —\u003ci\u003eNewsday\u003c\/i\u003e","brand":"Grove\/Atlantic, Inc.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":47133442310384,"sku":"9781555847869","price":17.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0737\/7593\/9824\/files\/9781555847869_p0.jpg?v=1763754995","url":"https:\/\/shop-qa.barnesandnoble.com\/products\/9781555847869","provider":"Barnes \u0026 Noble (DEV)","version":"1.0","type":"link"}