over until Abraham pulled the same stunt again and the whole scene was repeated.
My grandfather was often provocative, setting even his grandchildren against one another. On the night before my cousin Joel’s bar mitzvah, he and our cousin Shael stayed at Abraham and Fanny’s. Oblivious to Joel’s nervousness before he was to read from the Torah in public, Grandpa compared him unfavorably to Shael, whose family was more religious. The next morning at the synagogue, in a typical disruptive gesture, Abraham took a public shot at Joel’s father. Morrie had invited business associates and political connections, Jews and non-Jews, on whom he wanted to make a good impression. But when my grandfather rose to speak after the reading, he asserted that if you have a choice, you should “always do business with a Jew!”
When The Adventures of Augie March was published, my grandfather took considerable pride in his rabbi’s praise of the book. Despite turning down my father’s requests for money, he continued to worry about Saul’s financial prospects and told Sam to watch out for the welfare of his kid brother.
In 1955, when he was seventy-eight, Grandpa had a fatal heartattack. Morrie used his connections to secure a police escort complete with sirens from the synagogue to the cemetery. Saul joked about the irony that Abraham, who was running from the police most of his life, was accompanied by them on his last journey. After the funeral Aunt Fanny confessed to Saul that Grandpa had wanted to have sex the evening before he died, but she put him off because he had the sniffles. Her story cemented my father’s awe of Abraham as a tough, horny old bird. Despite their arguments, one of which included a threat by Abraham to come after Saul with a gun if he asked for money again, Saul grieved deeply. When Ruth Miller, a former student, came to pay a condolence call, she found my father weeping as he listened to Mozart’s Requiem .
Seize the Day reflects Saul’s lost hope of approval from his father. Abraham was not only unable to show Saul his love but also had formed a critical judgment of his youngest as an overgrown crybaby who had failed to absorb the lesson life taught him: the necessity for emotional toughness. I think that my father agreed but could do little to control his emotions. A film version of the novel was produced three decades later. The actor Joseph Wiseman, who played Dr. Adler, Tommy Wilhelm’s father, bore an uncanny physical resemblance to Grandpa and perfectly captured his harshness toward his son. After having witnessed such scenes between my father and grandfather, I was riveted to the screen as Tommy begs his implacable father for money. I mentioned to several family members how struck I was by the film, and my words of praise got back to my father. Saul, who believed that writing was a far superior way to capture the essence of people than film, took offense. On our next visit, he complained about what he took to be my lack of appreciationof his novel and extended his criticism to my lack of interest in literature as a whole. I told him that I continued to read and love great writers of fiction, but that I could not appreciate his books as literature. “They’re just too close,” I said. As was his habit whenever, like it or not, he was confronted with an irrefutable position, he remained silent and never again brought up the subject.
Despite his threats Abraham did not disinherit any of his children, and Saul’s share, about fifteen thousand dollars, was sufficient to buy a large house in the Hudson Valley. But Grandpa’s threats had a salutary effect on Saul’s behavior about money with his sons. Our father made it clear that each son was responsible for his own finances, thereby avoiding the destructive Bellow practice of mixing family and money matters.
After the death of their father, my uncles, aunt, and their families settled into midlife routines. Morrie was a wheeler-dealer in
My grandfather was often provocative, setting even his grandchildren against one another. On the night before my cousin Joel’s bar mitzvah, he and our cousin Shael stayed at Abraham and Fanny’s. Oblivious to Joel’s nervousness before he was to read from the Torah in public, Grandpa compared him unfavorably to Shael, whose family was more religious. The next morning at the synagogue, in a typical disruptive gesture, Abraham took a public shot at Joel’s father. Morrie had invited business associates and political connections, Jews and non-Jews, on whom he wanted to make a good impression. But when my grandfather rose to speak after the reading, he asserted that if you have a choice, you should “always do business with a Jew!”
When The Adventures of Augie March was published, my grandfather took considerable pride in his rabbi’s praise of the book. Despite turning down my father’s requests for money, he continued to worry about Saul’s financial prospects and told Sam to watch out for the welfare of his kid brother.
In 1955, when he was seventy-eight, Grandpa had a fatal heartattack. Morrie used his connections to secure a police escort complete with sirens from the synagogue to the cemetery. Saul joked about the irony that Abraham, who was running from the police most of his life, was accompanied by them on his last journey. After the funeral Aunt Fanny confessed to Saul that Grandpa had wanted to have sex the evening before he died, but she put him off because he had the sniffles. Her story cemented my father’s awe of Abraham as a tough, horny old bird. Despite their arguments, one of which included a threat by Abraham to come after Saul with a gun if he asked for money again, Saul grieved deeply. When Ruth Miller, a former student, came to pay a condolence call, she found my father weeping as he listened to Mozart’s Requiem .
Seize the Day reflects Saul’s lost hope of approval from his father. Abraham was not only unable to show Saul his love but also had formed a critical judgment of his youngest as an overgrown crybaby who had failed to absorb the lesson life taught him: the necessity for emotional toughness. I think that my father agreed but could do little to control his emotions. A film version of the novel was produced three decades later. The actor Joseph Wiseman, who played Dr. Adler, Tommy Wilhelm’s father, bore an uncanny physical resemblance to Grandpa and perfectly captured his harshness toward his son. After having witnessed such scenes between my father and grandfather, I was riveted to the screen as Tommy begs his implacable father for money. I mentioned to several family members how struck I was by the film, and my words of praise got back to my father. Saul, who believed that writing was a far superior way to capture the essence of people than film, took offense. On our next visit, he complained about what he took to be my lack of appreciationof his novel and extended his criticism to my lack of interest in literature as a whole. I told him that I continued to read and love great writers of fiction, but that I could not appreciate his books as literature. “They’re just too close,” I said. As was his habit whenever, like it or not, he was confronted with an irrefutable position, he remained silent and never again brought up the subject.
Despite his threats Abraham did not disinherit any of his children, and Saul’s share, about fifteen thousand dollars, was sufficient to buy a large house in the Hudson Valley. But Grandpa’s threats had a salutary effect on Saul’s behavior about money with his sons. Our father made it clear that each son was responsible for his own finances, thereby avoiding the destructive Bellow practice of mixing family and money matters.
After the death of their father, my uncles, aunt, and their families settled into midlife routines. Morrie was a wheeler-dealer in
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