Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories

by Scott Nadelson

Winner of the H.L. Davis Award for Short Fiction at the 2004 Oregon Book Awards and GLCA's 2005 New Writers Award, Scott Nadelson’s interrelated short stories are graceful, vivid narratives that bring into sudden focus the spirit and the stubborn resilience of the Brickmans, a Jewish family of four living in suburban New Jersey. The central character, Daniel Brickman, forges obstinately through his own plots and desires as he struggles to balance his sense of identity with his longing to gain acceptance from his family and peers. In Kosher, Daniel’s disdain for his parents’ values and lifestyle, for their materialism and need for security, leads him to take a job as a telemarketer for the Robowski Fund for the Disabled, a charity benefiting two people only: Daniel and Helen Robowski. And in Young Radicals, Daniel gathers research for a thesis on early Soviet history by interviewing his grandfather, now a retiree in Florida, who painted factories and sang Communist work songs in 1920s Leningrad before immigrating to America. This fierce collection provides an unblinking examination of family life and the human instinct for attachment.

Genres: Short Stories

220 pages, Paperback

First published June 1, 2004

About the author

Scott Nadelson grew up in northern New Jersey before escaping to Oregon, where he has lived for the past eighteen years. He has published three collections of short stories--Aftermath, The Cantor's Daughter, and Saving Stanley: The Brickman Stories--and a memoir, The Next Scott Nadelson: A Life in Progress. His newest books are the novel, Between You and Me and the story collection The Fourth Corner of the World (Engine Books, 2018). He is the winner of the Reform Judaism Fiction Prize, the Great Lakes Colleges New Writers Award, and the Oregon Book Award for short fiction, and his work has been cited as notable in both the Best American Short Stories and Best American Essays anthologies. Nadelson teaches creative writing at Willamette University in Salem, Oregon and in the Rainier Writing Workshop MFA Program at Pacific Lutheran University.

Reviews

[Terri Broemm · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5. The stories were well written and interesting interconnection.

[Lainie · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this portrait of a modern American family, Scott Nadelson chronicles the individual lives of each member of the Brickman family in non-sequential stories that drop us into this decade or that. He gives us the benefit of each person's inner life, letting us get to know and sympathize with them. He weaves each person into nuanced life without ever calling attention to himself as the writer/creator. Highly recommended.

[Cynthia · Rating 4 out of 5]

Connected short stories. Dysfunctional family. What more could you want?