Episode 674 - Josh Alan Friedman
from The Virtual Memories Show Hosted by Gil Roth
Pull up a chair, enjoy a kasha varnishke, and listen to me and Josh Alan Friedman talk about his kaleidoscopic novel, ALL ROADS LEAD TO GREAT NECK (Wyatt Doyle Books/New Texture)! We talk about the momentous years he spent in Great Neck as a kid and why he set his novel in 1970, the ne'er-do-wells and drug addicts he knew (and emulated) in school, how Great Neck has changed since his "glory days," and the larger-than-life Yiddishkeit ghost who haunts the novel. We get into how he managed to weave Irving Berlin, Floyd Patterson, and Leslie West into the story, how his wife got him to finish the book by putting up post-it notes in their kitchen about each chapter, and how he reconstructed 1970 Great Neck from his collection of the notes girls used to pass in schools and the letters his friends sent him from reform school. We also discuss life after losing his dad, Bruce Jay Friedman, in 2020, how he used to take his 14-year-old pals to see showings of Bruce Jay's play Steambath so they could catch the nude scene, how it felt to see pieces of his childhood transformed in his dad's stories (incl. a visit to Las Vegas), what's left of the New York of his heyday and why he misses Joe Franklin, the play he's writing about his chauffeur days, his retirement from his lifelong guitar career after a carpal tunnel diagnosis, and more. Follow Josh on Instagram and Facebook • More info at our site • Support The Virtual Memories Show via Stripe, Patreon, or Paypal, and subscribe to our e-newsletter
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