Introduction & Overview of Brazzaville Teen-ager by Bruce Jay Friedman

Brazzaville Teen-ager Introduction

Bruce Jay Friedman's "Brazzaville Teen-ager" was first published in the author's 1966 short-story collection, Black Angels. "Brazzaville Teen-ager" differs from most of Friedman's works, which emphasize the Jewishness of their characters. In this story, the ethnicity of the protagonist, Gunther, as well as of the other characters, remains undefined. Most of Friedman's fiction, including this story, has been characterized as black humor, a twentieth century term coined by Friedman himself. Black comedies tend to involve neurotic, inept characters in modern settings, where they face comic and often absurd predicaments. In "Brazzaville Teen-ager," Gunther, a young man who is unable to communicate with his stoic father, feels he has a chance to break this communication barrier when his father gets seriously ill. Gunther believes that if he performs an illogical, embarrassing act - in this case, getting his boss to sing backup for a doo-wop band - it will help his...
(read more)