Donald Friedman is an American writer, essayist, and novelist. He is also a trial attorney and perennial procrastinator.
Background
Friedman was born in 1943, in Newark, New Jersey, in Philip Roth’s neighborhood, the Weequahic section of Newark, but did most of his growing up in suburban South Orange. During his early childhood, he and his mother lived with his maternal grandparents - who had emigrated from eastern Europe - while his father, who eventually became an investment banker, fought with the combat engineers in the European theatre of World War II.
Education
At ten, Friedman enrolled in private art classes and began oil painting which continued through high school. At Washington University in St. Louis, Missouri, where he pursued pre-med studies and majored in English literature, he also acted, winning the school's best-actor award in his senior year, cartooned for the school paper, and wrote his first fiction. He received a Juris Doctor degree from Rutgers Law School and a Master of Laws from New York University Law School.
Career
One year out of college, Friedman decided to set aside his creative ambitions and entered law school, "resolving that at forty, I would start writing again."
In the 1980s, having turned forty and with his interest in fiction writing rekindled, Friedman took creative writing courses and started writing again in earnest. His short story "Jewing" appeared in Tikkun and became the foundation for his 2000 novel, The Hand before the Eye. He is also the author of the multiply translated The Writer’s Brush, Paintings, Drawings, and Sculpture by Writers.
Lawyer Farbman, the protagonist of The Hand before the Eye, is a midtown-Manhattan trial attorney with a motley clientele. Farbman, who lives beyond his means, is always just a step ahead of his creditors. He and his wife, Ann Marie, seem married in little more than name and he has abdicated most child-rearing responsibilities for their children, Jennifer and Jason, to her. A chance meeting with the very attractive, highly spiritual Leah Stein results in Farbman's following her to a retreat with a mystic rabbi. There Farbman finds a connection to his long-neglected faith as well as with Leah, and he vows to live his life with a sense of higher purpose. Soon after his epiphany, Farbman begins to suffer what turns into a seemingly endless series of Job-like visitations: Ann Marie is diagnosed with cancer, then decides to divorce him and exclude him from his children's lives, his business withers, and unexpected betrayals occur. The more ethical his resolve, it seems, the worse his circumstances become.
Connections
Friedman is married and has two children.