ABSTRACT
The quintessential Bruce J. Friedman protagonist, visible in several of his novels and short stories, is a child of New York, reared in a three-room apartment by a brassy, overpowering mother with vague showbiz connections and enormous vitality, often expressed through sexual display or insult. His father, an inconsiderable nebbish who works faithfully and haplessly at a trade like couch-cutting, hardly figures except as a disappointment to both son and mother. He was born in the Bronx. His mother, remembered by neighbors as a flamboyant woman, had show-business connections that introduced Friedman to Broadway shows as a child. In 1951 he entered the Air Force, writing for a magazine called Air Training. While in the Air Force, he married Ginger Howard, an actress and model. In 1954 he returned to New York and began a career with Magazine Management Company, for which he edited such magazines as Man, Male, and Man's World.
