Norvell is an independent educational writer who specializes in English and literature. In this essay, Norvell discusses what sets Friedman's story apart from most contemporary literary fiction.

One of the things that sets Bruce Jay Friedman apart from most of his contemporaries is the richness of his writing. Much current American literary fiction is minimalist, to use a neutral term, or barren, to use a not-so-neutral one. In an article in the July/August 2001 issue of the Atlantic Monthly, B. R. Myers wrote what many readers and at least a few critics had been thinking. Myers's article begins:

Nothing gives me the feeling of having been born several decades too late quite like the modern "literary" bestseller. Give me a time-tested masterpiece or what critics patronizingly call a fun read - Sister Carrie or just plain Carrie. Give me anything, in fact, as long as it doesn't...