The Peace Process
A Novella and Stories
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3.0 • 1 Rating
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- $11.99
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- $11.99
Publisher Description
A brilliant new collection from one of American literature’s most original and hilarious purveyors of dark comedy
Silenced by the horrors of Nazi Germany, a Jewish satirist is inspired to write again by his biggest fan: Joseph Goebbels. A retired English teacher dies on the operating table and wakes up to an afterlife in which literature does not exist; he can claim any masterpiece as his own, from The Catcher in the Rye to Crime and Punishment—if only he can remember what actually happens in those stories. On his first trip to the Holy Land, a down-on-his-luck filmmaker reluctantly agrees to help a young Israeli Arab escape to New York, only to watch in dismay as the upstart lands a buxom, Yiddish-speaking girlfriend and a monster movie deal.
Mario Puzo once said that the world of Bruce Jay Friedman’s short fiction is “like a Twilight Zone with Charlie Chaplin.” Ironic, clever, perceptive, and hysterical, The Peace Process is vintage Friedman—fourteen finely crafted tales that take dead aim at the sweet spot between pleasure and pain.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
This collection of Friedman's madcap stories is replete with tricky plots, wacky traps, and characters who ensnare themselves in their own ridiculous choices. In "A Fan Is a Fan," the standout story, Nazi Reichminister of Propaganda Joseph Goebbels phones up prominent Jewish satirist Max Winterman and attempts to commission a piece for the V lkischer Beobachter, the Nazi Party's newspaper. Winterman considers his options: "He hated every bone in the man's body, and the ground he stood on. Yet there was no denying the Reichminister's prominence." The prose-poem "Orange Shoes" is a much-needed moment of emotional resonance in the cheeky collection. Friedman's characters have plenty of personality. Tension built from racing between plot points occasionally creates a feeling of unmoored chaos, but even the most disorganized stories are funny, sometimes brutally so. In the novella "The Peace Process," which closes the collection, William Kleiner is visiting Jerusalem to scout film locations, and he ponders an actual move to the city. He has "few ties to the States a fading career, a paper-thin marriage... Still, a move would mean a farewell to Scotty Pippin, not to mention Dan Rather, Puerto Ricans, and Kevin Spacey." The peace process involved in this novella, as Kleiner gets away from his assumptions and helps a local Arab man attend a family wedding and pursue a career in film, is life affirming. Each time hardship forces Kleiner into a difficult situation, he faces the issue and creates new, more purposeful life for himself, an idea that radiates throughout Friedman's entire collection.
