Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos Best Nonfiction

A few years ago, Christopher Buckley wrote of Bruce Jay Friedman in theNew York Times Book Reviewthat 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 for the first time-inEven 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 Jerusalem to Etta's Eat Shop in Chicago. In these pieces, which were published in the last four decades in literary and mass-circulation magazines such asPlayboy,Esquire,Rolling Stone, andHarper's, 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"). Newsweekcalled Friedman "a marvelously gifted novelist" by Newsweek, and he has authored plays, screenplays, and short stories. We could certainly sing his praises as a prolific writer, journalist, humorist, and social critic. But, as theNew York Times Book Reviewtells us, being Bruce Jay Friedman is enough.Friedman, Bruce Jay is the author of 'Even the Rhinos Were Nymphos Best Nonfiction' with ISBN 9780226263502 and ISBN 0226263509.