Does anyone know what that damned extra comma is actually doing there?

Pekar was one of those writers — like Hubert Selby, Jr. or Jim Carroll, or Lou Reed as a lyricist — whom you forgive for occasionally delivering a wooden line or even a dud of a book (or album). Somehow these guys are able to absorb the missteps and make them count as marks of character. I find Pekar's stories…