Bruce Jay Friedman — novelist, playwright, screenwriter, actor, magazine editor — lived his life right at the centre of an arts golden age in America.
Born in The Bronx in 1930, to Jewish parents of no great means, Lucky Bruce appeared to lead a charmed life. In charge of four magazines on Madison Avenue by the age of thirty, he befriended or hired all the literary giants — Mario Puzo, Philip Roth, Joseph Heller and Richard Yates, to name just a few.
At a house party given by Norman Mailer, he and the famous author came to blows. In London he dined with Edna O’Brien and Harold Pinter, and in Hollywood attended parties with Joan Collins and Warren Beatty. Commuting between the family home in the suburbs and Manhattan, he hung out at media haunt Elaine’s, living the full Mad Men lifestyle.His second novel, Stern, won critical and commercial acclaim and Friedman quit magazines to write full time.
But despite the outward appearance of success, his marriage was failing, and in order to support his three much-loved sons he turned to screenwriting, delivering the hit prison movie Stir Crazy, starring Richard Pryor and Gene Wilder. He followed this up with the timeless Splash, which launched the career of Tom Hanks.
With fascinating cameos from Lillian Hellman, Marlene Dietrich, Joyce Carol Oates, Isaac Bashevis Singer, Kurt Vonnegut and of course the legendary Elaine, this brilliant, immensely readable memoir displays the self effacing charm and dry humour which earned Friedman his place among the giants of American culture.
