The eight stories that comprise Saving Stanley focus on the Brickman family – father, mother and two sons. At the narrative’s center is Daniel Brickman, the younger son, whose struggles of childhood, adolescence, and young adulthood come painfully alive through Nadelson’s prose. As narrative perspective changes, we gain an intimate view into the fears and hopes of Daniel and his family (including a Florida-based, ex-Communist, Russian-born grandfather), their stories fused with both humor and pathos.