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.
"The master of the deadpan is on top of his game at 85 with a wise, funny new collection."
Tablet magazine
"This collection of Friedman's madcap stories is replete with tricky plots, wacky traps, and characters who ensnare themselves in their own ridiculous choices. . . . Funny, sometimes brutally so. . . . Life affirming."
Kirkus Reviews
"Larry David has nothing on Friedman in finding the absurd in ordinary situations. . . . Jewish humor lives in this frequently hilarious and thoughtful collection."
