Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos
Best Nonfiction
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- 34,99 €
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- 34,99 €
Description de l’éditeur
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.
A butler school in Houston, a livestock auction in Little Rock, a home for “frozen guys” in California, JFK’s humidor in Manhattan—all are jumping off points for Friedman’s baleful and sharply satirical scrutiny of American life and behavior in the second half of the twentieth century. Travel with Friedman from Harlem to Hollywood, from Port-au-Prince to Etta’s Eat Shop in Chicago. In these pieces, which were published in literary and mass-circulation magazines from the 1960s to the 1990s, you'll meet such luminaries as Castro and Clinton, Natalie Wood and Clint Eastwood, and even Friedman’s friends Irwin Shaw, Nelson Algren, and Mario Puzo. Friedman is a master of the essay, whether the subject is crime reporting (“Lessons of the Street"), Hollywood shenanigans (“My Life among the Stars"), or his outrageous adventures as the editor of pulp magazines (the classic “Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos"). We could sing his praises as a journalist, humorist, and social critic. But, as Buckley tells us, being Bruce Jay Friedman is enough.
Bruce Jay Friedman is the author of seven novels (including The Dick, Stern, and A Mother’s Kisses), four collections of short stories, four full-length plays (including Scuba Duba and Steambath), and the screenplays for the movies Splash and Stir Crazy.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Better known for his novels (A Mother's Kisses), plays (Scuba Duba) and screenplays (Splash), Friedman has also garnered over the past four decades a reputation as a journalist whose sly wit complements his idiosyncratic insights. This collection of 23 nonfiction pieces, ranging from the late 1960s to the mid-1990s, brings together a sampling of the author's best magazine writing from Esquire, New York magazine and Playboy, among other publications. Friedman is at his most wry when he is writing about theater and Hollywood. In "Tales from the Darkside" (published in Smart in 1988), he details how a brief stint as a film producer (a far more prestigious and powerful position than that of a writer) still never got him the access and respect he desired. In "Some Thoughts on Clint Eastwood and Heidegger," a quirky, idolizing meditation on the actor's life and career, he juxtaposes odd musings--such as that his cinematic hero would read the philosopher "and get something out of it, too, maybe not all of what Heidegger was driving at, but something"--with the curious opinion that "I don't think that sex is very important to ." Often, Friedman's profiles provide a frightening glimpse into the past. The 1971 "Lessons of the Street" (published in Harper's) details the life and work of a New York City plainclothes detective; as Friedman deftly exposes the cop's racism and violence, we realize how much has and hasn't changed in three decades. While some of the material is (unsurprisingly) dated, the collection provides a vital and sustained look at an important American writer with a unique voice.