Stern

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.