Members of the Milwaukee Jewish community who have encountered Kipp Friedman may not know he has American Jewish cultural yichus (Hebrew for illustrious ancestry). Rather, they may have met him in one or perhaps both of two capacities.
Since about 1992, Friedman has worked for the Harry & Rose Samson Family Jewish Community Center, full-time and part-time, doing communications and marketing work. Besides that, he is a professional photographer who has shot many bat/bar mitzvah celebrations and weddings around town.
But Kipp, 52, is also the youngest of three sons of Bruce Jay Friedman, 83, novelist (“Stern”), short-story writer, journalist, playwright (“Steambath”), humorist (“The Lonely Guy’s Book of Life”), screenwriter (“Stir Crazy”) — and apparently a creative and indulgent parent.
Now Kipp has followed in his father’s footsteps and become an author himself.
He recalls life with his father — and with his mother, brothers, grandparents, friends, enemies and acquaintances — in his soon-to-be published memoir, “Barracuda in the Attic” (Fantagraphics Books, 208 pages, $26.99).
He will be featured in a conversation about his book on Thursday, Oct. 3, 7 p.m., at Boswell Book Company, 2559 N. Downer Ave., Milwaukee.
In a conversation with The Chronicle, Friedman said that his writer father provided the initial inspiration for the book.
Shortly after his father and his mother, acting teacher Ginger Howard Friedman, divorced, Kipp spent the last of his pre-college years living with Bruce Jay, enjoying bachelor life in New York City.
Some years later, said Kipp, “I was telling him how special a period it was when I lived with him. He said, ‘That would make a great story.’” But when Kipp said he looked forward to reading what his father would do with it, his father said, “I think you should write it.”
“I’ll write it when I have some time,” Kipp said, and he forgot about it for some 15 years. Then about five years ago, he was sitting in front of his computer one weekend and thought, “I’ll never have as much time to write this story as I do right this moment.”
So he started “Life with Father (1977-1978),” and “The memories came back like a flood.” That became the first chapter of the book’s 12.
Those memories led to others — of his father catching a barracuda, having it mounted and hanging it on the wall of his office (which gives the book its title); of his father and his maternal grandfather having a furious argument in a restaurant over the 1968 Chicago Democratic Party convention riots; of the hostile neighbors the Friedmans had in Long Island; of a used book-comic book-magazine store that father and sons used to visit; and more.
“The interesting thing about memoir writing,” Kipp said he discovered, “is when you can latch onto a specific item or smell or interaction. That immediately pulls you back to that time, and it becomes real again.”
Moreover, the stories “became easier to write” as he went on, he said. “I was trusting my instincts… Childhood goes by so quickly, you want to remember the magical moments. And there were a lot for me.”
Not that he purely trusted his memories. Kipp said he sent each chapter to his parents and his brothers, who were able to validate Kipp’s recollections and correct some of his facts.
Above all, “everybody was supportive,” Kipp said. “Nobody said, ‘I don’t want you to write about that.’”
Indeed, he comes from a creative family, not only in his parents, but also in both of his brothers. His oldest brother Josh is a writer and musician living in Dallas, Texas. His second brother Drew is an artist and illustrator who has created graphic novels.
In fact, Drew not only created the cover of Kipp’s book, but also was the link to the publisher, Fantagraphics, a Seattle-based firm that mostly publishes graphic novels, but also some works of prose.
“Barracuda in the Attic” is not just about Kipp’s childhood and personal memories. It also provides a window into a bit of American Jewish cultural history.
Kipp’s father was one of a group of American Jewish writers who emerged in the 1950s and 1960s. They also included Joseph Heller, Saul Bellow, Bernard Malamud, Philip Roth, Norman Mailer and others.
Most of them were the grandchildren of immigrants and so were people who were feeling more comfortable in the United States, said Kipp.
“They were branching out, moving to the suburbs… making their own world and forging ahead,” Kipp said. They didn’t hide their Jewishness, didn’t suffer from anti-Semitism the way their grandparents did; yet they were still “carrying outsider baggage” to some extent, he said.
Kipp had plenty of chances to see some of the cultural world in which his father moved, from trips to Hollywood that included attending a party at the home of great comedian Groucho Marx to dinners at New York restaurants frequented by actors, writers, filmmakers and others.
Kipp said that future plans for his book include readings in Chicago and New York City — and with his father at the latter. “I’m very excited about that,” Kipp said
“Dad is a great writing teacher,” Kipp added. He said his father emphasizes “specificity” and “authenticity.” “Everything else will follow,” Kipp said. “He was right.”
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