An American novelist and short story writer, sometimes called 'the Chekhov of the suburbs', and now recognised as one of the most important short fiction writers of the 20th century.

His main themes include the duality of human nature: sometimes dramatised as the disparity between a character's decorous social persona and inner corruption, and sometimes as a conflict between two characters (often brothers) who embody the salient aspects of both – light and dark, flesh and spirit. Many of his works also express a nostalgia for a vanishing way of life.