Scattered LightBy: Jay BlueThe poems in this collection have been selected as individual points of light, sourced from a diverse array of perspective across the strands of personal experience. Much as the morning sun shares its spectrum through the bevel of ancient glass, this collection too intends to refract your senses and intrigue your desire to see more. What follows are images in reality’s fabric, conjured of the imagination, and borrowed from hints of history. Each s...

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 in the freewheeling atmosphere of the early 1970s. But when cracks start to appear in his perfectly constructed life, he has no option but to pick up the scattered piec...

A parade of unforgettable characters emerge from the steam in this hilarious, supernatural bathhouse. There is Tandy, fresh from teaching art appreciation at the Police Academy; Meredith, whose last memory is buying a micro-miniskirt; Biberman, a karate silver-belt who masquerades as a paraplegic; and the mysterious Puerto Rican janitor given to omniscient musings and manipulating the fate of all mankind.An L.A. Theatre Works full-cast performance featuring Jason Alexander, Edward ...

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 a single ebook edition (John Gregory Dunne).With its "sparkling . . . winsome and true" look at the single male in America—from his sad new apartment furnishings to h...

"Stern" follows the story of Irving Stern, a Jewish man living in New York City who finds himself disillusioned with his life and career. As an advertising executive, Stern is successful but deeply unhappy, feeling trapped in a world of superficiality and materialism.The novel explores Stern's existential crisis as he grapples with questions of identity, purpose, and authenticity. Feeling disconnected from his Jewish heritage and dissatisfied with his marriage and career, Stern embarks on ...

An ex-NYPD clerk teams up with a shady Broadway producer for a disastrous musical comedy in this hilarious novel by the New York Times–bestselling author . . .In addition to his desk job at the precinct, Paul Gurney has long been in charge of the department newsletter known as The Homicider—covering workplace news, dispensing advice, and disseminating interoffice gossip. But now, in the wake of a divorce, he's decided to retire. What will he do ne...

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." We are happy to report that he remains the same Bruce Jay Friedman in his unique, unblinking, and slightly tilted essays—collected here for the first time—in Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos....

New York Times -Bestselling Author: A Jewish man struggles in midcentury suburbia in this dark comic novel "in the tradition of the Charlie Chaplin movie."— TimeThe first novel by Bruce Jay Friedman, the author of such classics as The Lonely Guy and A Mother's Kisses, 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 cat...

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 iridescent tour de force...Mr. Friedman's style is pure delight-supple, carnal, humorous and at times slightly surrealistic."—The New York Times Book Review"What makes Friedma...

Screenwriter Harry Towns continues his misadventures in this novel from a New York Times–bestselling author and "witty chronicler of urban angst" ( San Francisco Chronicle).Set in late-1980s New York, this novel continues the story of Harry Towns—who is well into his fifties and is feeling increasingly out of place in the world, but doesn't let that stop him from pursuing success as a playwright (or at least making some quick cash by selling a TV ...

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 of the New York Times–bestselling author's greatest stories, which originally appeared in Esquire, The New Yorker, and other ma...

"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 everything we'd expect and more: here is Friedman at his best, waltzing from Madison Avenue to Hollywood and back again, and reilluminating with brilliant clarity the dazzle of post-war...