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Mitzvah Man
Boston businessman Adam Friedman goes a little crazy—or becomes a little holy—after the death of his beloved wife. He becomes a very different kind of superhero. In a frenzy of mitzvot—good deeds, commandments—he saves lives and helps the needy. His teenage daughter begins to wonder if there isn't something more than a shared joke to the Mitzvah Man T-shirt she has designed for him. When Friedman is propelled into the headlines, followers gather on his doorstep. Voices, dreams, and auras visit him. Miracles occur among family, friends, and strangers alike. But while some hail the Mitzvah Man as a modern-day prophet, others brand him a madman, and he is in danger of losing custody of his daughter. Through his experiences of love and loss, beauty and pain, Friedman's daily quest reveals the unexpected ways in which God may inhabit us. Clayton's previous novel, his third, Kuperman’s Fire, about corporate criminal evil, Jewish heritage, and the miracle of survival, was published in 2007 by Toby Press, which also published his Wrestling with Angels: New and Collected Stories the same year. This book has just been republished by Amazon. In 2011 his stories have been appeared in Commentary and Superstition Review. A story in Missouri Review was included in a recent Pushcart Prize Anthology. His stories have also appeared in AGNI, Virginia Quarterly Review, The Journal, Notre Dame Review, TriQuarterly, Sewanee Review, and often in Commentary. Clayton's stories have won prizes in O.Henry Prize Stories, Best American Short Stories, and the Pushcart Prize Anthology. His collection Radiance, won the Ohio State University award in short fiction and was a finalist for the National Jewish Book Award. An essay about his work appeared in the Fall 1998 Yale Review. His story “The Man Who Could See Radiance” was read at Symphony Space in New York and has been aired often on NPR since Fall 2001, as part of the Selected Shorts series. It is included in the audio anthology, Getting There From Here: Best of Selected Shorts. Clayton has edited six editions of the college and university literature anthology, the Heath Introduction to Fiction. He has also written a good deal about modern fiction, including Gestures of Healing, a psychological study of modern British and American fiction. His Saul Bellow: In Defense of Man won awards (Choice, MLA) in literary criticism. He has published essays on various twentieth century writers including D. H. Lawrence, E. L. Doctorow and Grace Paley. His feature articles have appeared in both Jewish and mainstream newspapers. |
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