Three Balconies: Stories and a Novella

The first collection of new short fiction by Bruce Jay Friedman in more than two decades, helping to cement his reputation as one of the country's leading black humorists. A New York Times Editor's Selection.

In the foreword to his The Collected Short Fiction, Bruce Jay Friedman wrote: "In her late years, my mother confessed to me that she had dropped me on my head when I was two. As I've grown older, I've come to believe that her presumably innocent mistake resulted in the 'tilted' quality I've been accused of having in my work."

We can now add to the stories in The Collected Short Fiction the splendidly tilted fictions in Three Balconies, vintage Friedman all. In these stories Friedman returns to the Jewish suburbs of New York he explored with his characteristic wit and charm in his earlier stories and novels, streets where Jew and Gentile duke it out time and again, though often each remains uncertain of the reason. In these pages you'll meet Jacob, who as a junior counsellor at summer camp wakes up his young charges at midnight to tell them that their parents have been executed by the Nazis, and Alexander Kahn, a failed novelist turned journalist who breaks the law within sight of the prison warden, so taken is he with the camaraderie he's discovered in the joint when compared with the thin gruel of companionship he's experienced outside. You'll meet Harry, the once famous screenwriter, and a moral man who "lacks a moral follow through." And in the title novella, the tragic and great Beau DeVyne, perhaps the most memorable of Friedman's characters to date.

In sumptuously simple language—the language of the street, the bar, the store, the office—Friedman gives us a collection of moral fables that explore friendship and faith and failure unswervingly, yet with compassion and humour.

Novelist, playwright, short-story writer, and Oscar-nominated screenwriter Bruce Jay Friedman was born in New York City. Friedman published his first novel, Stern, in 1962 and established himself as a writer and playwright, most famously known for his off-Broadway hit Steambath (1973) (TV) and his 1978 novel The Lonely Guy's Book of Life. In addition to short stories and plays, Friedman also has published seven novels, and has written numerous screenplays, including the Oscar-nominated Splash (1984). He resides in New York City with his wife, educator Patricia J. O’Donohue.