Bruce Jay Friedman, who wrote darkly humorous novels, screenplays and scripts exploring the fears and insecurities of the white middle-class, died last week at age 90. Born and raised in the Bronx, N.Y., Friedman published his first book, Stern, in 1962. His sophomore novel, A Mother's Kisses, about an overbearing Jewish mother taking her son to college, became a bestseller in 1964. His first play, Scuba Duba, premiered in 1967 and was an Off-Broadway hit. In the early 1970s Friedman wrote Steambath, another popular play that was televised in 1973. He published the novels The Dick, about an urban detective, and About Harry Towns, featuring a screenwriter addicted to cocaine and, in the latter half of the decade, he wrote The Lonely Guy's Book of Life, which began as a series of essays and was later adapted for film. Friedman also wrote short stories, and his story "A Change of Plan" became the film The Heartbreak Kid.
From the 1980s on, Friedman focused on movies, writing the screenplay for Stir Crazy, which starred Gene Wilder and Richard Pryor and was directed by Sidney Poitier, and the first draft of the script for Splash, a romantic comedy about an affair between a man and a mermaid that starred Tom Hanks and Daryl Hannah. Friedman is considered an early writer of modern American black humor, alongside his friend Joseph Heller and colleagues Stanley Elkin and Thomas Pynchon. Friedman's most recent book is Lucky Bruce: A Literary Memoir (2011). A Mother's Kisses was last published in 2015 by Open Road Media ($19.99).
