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Overview
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.
The story of a Jewish family displaced from the city to the suburbs, and the mild-mannered Everyman of the title.
Synopsis
Hailed as an instant classic when it was published in 1962, Stern is the tale of a suburban husband who develops a world-class ulcer while struggling to defend his wife's honor and his own ego against the local bigot. Only Bruce Jay Friedman could make this situation into one of the most hilarious dark comic novels of the last century.
Village Voice
This is cruel, sadistic stuff, and helplessly funny... One laughs because Stern is so relentlessly naive and also because he is so right, which brings pain. Stern is -black humor is- the retelling of Job. Only this Job gets an ulcer instead of a benediction.