“Despite author Mort Zachter's frustrations at his own family, who are the subject of this book, Dough is a heartwarming tale of discovery and understanding.
Uncles Harry and Joe run a bakery in New York's Lower East Side. They don't actually bake -- they sell day-old bread. Open 7 days a week, including blizzards, Joe and Harry close the shop only for the high holy days. To most, including Zachter, they appear to be extremely poor, hardworking men struggling to make ends meet. Zachter's parents certainly are: they live in a one bedroom apartment where a young Mort is forced to sleep in the kitchen, his head cooled on hot summer days only by the fridge he uses as a headboard.
The truth about Harry and Joe is that their penny-pinching ways have resulted in them being multi-millionaires, a fact Zachter learns only after Uncle Harry (Joe being long dead) moves in with Zachter's parents, who care for him as Alzheimer's takes hold of the beloved joke-telling uncle. A chance phone call and a case of mistaken identity results in Zachter learning about Harry's account of $1 million from a broker. He quickly discovers that there is at least $5 million more.
Zachter takes us on his journey of discovery. We are taken back to the glory days of the bakery, where even his mother, Helen, works for break, cakes and cookies as payment. Zachter struggles with the truth of his uncles' wealth, resenting the fact that while his own family struggled to survive and he, as an adult, struggled financially to support his own family, his uncles never helped to relieve their family of their financial burdens.
Dough is wonderfully written, easy to read and quite absorbing. We never do learn how Harry and Joe really did make their millions, and on occasion the question does tug on the reader's mind. But that's the point: Zachter doesn't know either, and as many questions linger for him as they do for us.”
missed wrote this review Thursday, July 31 2008.
(
reply |
permalink )
