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Dough: A Memoir
Mort Zachter’s childhood revolved around a small shop on Manhattan’s Lower East Side known in the neighborhood as “the day-old bread store.” It was a bakery where nothing was baked, owned by his two eccentric uncles who referred to their goods as “the merchandise.” Zachter grew up sleeping in the dinette of a leaking Brooklyn tenement. He lived a classic immigrant story--one of a close-knit, working-class family struggling to make it in America. Only they were rich.In Dough, Zachter chronicles the life-altering discovery made at age thirty-six that he was heir to several million dollars his bachelor uncles had secretly amassed in stocks and bonds. Although initially elated, Zachter battled bitter memories of the long hours his mother worked at the bakery for no pay. And how could his own parents have kept the secret from him while he was a young married man, working his way through night school? As he cleans out his uncles’ apartment, Zachter discovers clues about their personal lives that raise more questions than they answer. He also finds cake boxes packed with rolls of two-dollar bills and mattresses stuffed with coins.
In prose that is often funny and at times elegiac, Zachter struggles with the legacy of his enigmatic family and the implications of his new-found wealth. Breaking with his family’s workaholic heritage, Zachter abandons his pragmatic accounting career to pursue his lifelong dream of being a writer. And though he may not understand his family, in the end he realizes that forgiveness and acceptance matter most.
In prose that is often funny and at times elegiac, Zachter struggles with the legacy of his enigmatic family and the implications of his new-found wealth. Breaking with his family’s workaholic heritage, Zachter abandons his pragmatic accounting career to pursue his lifelong dream of being a writer. And though he may not understand his family, in the end he realizes that forgiveness and acceptance matter most.
192 pages, Hardcover
First published September 25, 2007
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153 people want to read
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 59 reviews
February 11, 2020
This book features a compelling story, that of a family of eastern European Jewish immigrants who run a bakery selling day-old bread and who’s to eccentric uncles hoard millions until their deaths, but the delivery leaves a bit to be desired. Zachter doesn’t do a fantastic job of maintaining narrative tension or of painting even the oddest members of his family with any detail. There are moments, particularly when the writer is describing his own childhood memories, when the writing is quite good but there’s also a lot that falls flat.
June 28, 2018
Great premise, weak delivery. A nice memoir with decent descriptions of multi-generations in NYC that own a bakery and live in near-poverty. However, upon finding out that his uncles have squirreled away millions, he dwells too much on the bitterness of the poverty and not the joy of inheritance that enabled him to write the book.
February 10, 2016
It was a potentially interesting story, but the chapters are so fragmented and jump around chronologically so much that it makes it hard to follow the thread of how this family lived and earned on the Lower East Side. I would have liked a bit more detail and a bit more of a linear narrative. It seemed more cathartic for the author than informative for the reader.
April 22, 2008
For a guy who inherited millions of dollars from his uncles, the author sure can hold on to some bitterness. They funded his literary foray here, both with material (their life story) and materially (with the money they secretly hoarded for years) but he still can't make them into living, breathing characters. Mostly he seems mad still that they didn't step up to pay for the adoption of his two kids. Also, it seems as if he royally screwed his parents who were the true heirs. Awkwardly structured, unappealing narrator - coulda woulda shoulda been good. Perhaps it's time to return to your day job, former tax attorney.
February 5, 2018
An interesting look at the immigrant experience in New York and generational attitudes about money. I found that the way the chapters jumped around in time made the story hard to follow. But I wish this author well in his choice to pursue a writing career over accounting or law.
April 20, 2023
RICK ““SHAQ” GOLDSTEIN SAYS: “A SWEET AND SOUR DOUGH STORY OF LIFE!”
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The author, Mort Zachter writes a quirky semi-auto biographical story of his life. I say “semi”, because the real mystery this book revolves around are his two bachelor Uncles, Harry and Joe. Mort’s Russian Jewish immigrant Grandparents, Max and Lena Wolk, opened a bakery in New York City in 1926. Uncles Harry and Joe not only came to work in the bakery, but before and after their parents died, their entire life seemed to be the bakery, or as they all called it, “The Store”. The store was open seven days a week including the Sabbath, except for the High Holiday’s and Passover week. They seemed to have had absolutely no other asset or interest in the world. Mort’s mother Helen (Harry & Joe’s sister.) would always get dragged into work at any hour of the day. Yet the Uncle’s never paid her a cent.
Mort and his family lived in a barren Brooklyn apartment with nary a decoration nor ornament on the walls. Mort had to sleep in the kitchen on a fold up bed with his head near the refrigerator. The two bachelor uncles made Mort’s parents look like high rollers. “Uncle Harry and Uncle Joe lived like paupers in the Mitchell-Lama housing project on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. They drove a twenty-year-old Buick that had been rear-ended and looked like a giant accordion. For years, they frequented the deeply discounted dental clinic at NYU, where interning students treated them.” Meanwhile Mort attended Brooklyn College, which was basically a tuition-free school. He also received an academic-based Regent’s Scholarship that paid for his books. He lived at home, and believed that the tuition cost at a private college was beyond their financial abilities. More recently as an adult, he had to take out tens of thousands of dollars in student loans to put himself through four long, hard years of evening law school, took out a second mortgage, to adopt their son, and worried day and night when he was fired from his accounting job a few years later. Uncle Harry and Uncle Joe never offered even a penny to help.
When Uncle Joe died and Uncle Harry became plagued with dementia and had to live with Mort’s parents, a phone call that Mort answered, started an unbelievable chain of events that led to this book! The caller was a broker at Smith Barney who said: “There is a million dollars in Harry’s money-market account. I suggest you buy a million dollars worth of treasuries to maximize the return!” While still reeling from this million dollar shock, Mort decided to look through his Uncle’s abandoned dilapidated apartment and check his mail. He then found two more brokerage statements each with over a million dollars in them, he found a U.S. Treasury Department account with almost a million dollars in it, and there also were numerous stocks and bonds! Uncle Harry was the original “SIX-MILLION-DOLLAR-MAN”! Later Mort found mattresses stuffed with coins and cake boxes filled with rolls of two-dollar bills! Mort and the reader are aghast! How could the Uncle’s who lived like bums and never did anything or went anywhere have amassed this fortune, and more puzzling to Mort, how could they have never offered to help their only nephew? And of course the Uncle’s never paid Helen. This is an interesting “truth is stranger than fiction” story.
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The author, Mort Zachter writes a quirky semi-auto biographical story of his life. I say “semi”, because the real mystery this book revolves around are his two bachelor Uncles, Harry and Joe. Mort’s Russian Jewish immigrant Grandparents, Max and Lena Wolk, opened a bakery in New York City in 1926. Uncles Harry and Joe not only came to work in the bakery, but before and after their parents died, their entire life seemed to be the bakery, or as they all called it, “The Store”. The store was open seven days a week including the Sabbath, except for the High Holiday’s and Passover week. They seemed to have had absolutely no other asset or interest in the world. Mort’s mother Helen (Harry & Joe’s sister.) would always get dragged into work at any hour of the day. Yet the Uncle’s never paid her a cent.
Mort and his family lived in a barren Brooklyn apartment with nary a decoration nor ornament on the walls. Mort had to sleep in the kitchen on a fold up bed with his head near the refrigerator. The two bachelor uncles made Mort’s parents look like high rollers. “Uncle Harry and Uncle Joe lived like paupers in the Mitchell-Lama housing project on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. They drove a twenty-year-old Buick that had been rear-ended and looked like a giant accordion. For years, they frequented the deeply discounted dental clinic at NYU, where interning students treated them.” Meanwhile Mort attended Brooklyn College, which was basically a tuition-free school. He also received an academic-based Regent’s Scholarship that paid for his books. He lived at home, and believed that the tuition cost at a private college was beyond their financial abilities. More recently as an adult, he had to take out tens of thousands of dollars in student loans to put himself through four long, hard years of evening law school, took out a second mortgage, to adopt their son, and worried day and night when he was fired from his accounting job a few years later. Uncle Harry and Uncle Joe never offered even a penny to help.
When Uncle Joe died and Uncle Harry became plagued with dementia and had to live with Mort’s parents, a phone call that Mort answered, started an unbelievable chain of events that led to this book! The caller was a broker at Smith Barney who said: “There is a million dollars in Harry’s money-market account. I suggest you buy a million dollars worth of treasuries to maximize the return!” While still reeling from this million dollar shock, Mort decided to look through his Uncle’s abandoned dilapidated apartment and check his mail. He then found two more brokerage statements each with over a million dollars in them, he found a U.S. Treasury Department account with almost a million dollars in it, and there also were numerous stocks and bonds! Uncle Harry was the original “SIX-MILLION-DOLLAR-MAN”! Later Mort found mattresses stuffed with coins and cake boxes filled with rolls of two-dollar bills! Mort and the reader are aghast! How could the Uncle’s who lived like bums and never did anything or went anywhere have amassed this fortune, and more puzzling to Mort, how could they have never offered to help their only nephew? And of course the Uncle’s never paid Helen. This is an interesting “truth is stranger than fiction” story.
March 21, 2022
Being an avid baker, I enjoyed reading this book. It interesting to look into the lives of people and see what makes them tick. Dough, demonstrates how people may not be as they are on the surface.
May 2, 2024
Felt like I could picture this entire story in my head. Interesting story and vivid details.
August 31, 2008
My Review of DOUGH by Mort Zachter
To all of us who hold dear family stories of our ancestors making their way to America where the “streets were paved with gold”, readers will appreciate this charming and relatable memoir by Mort Zachter. Mort’s Jewish immigrant grandparents, Max and Lena Wolk, came and opened a bakery in New York’s Lower East Side in 1926. Their bachelor sons, Harry and Joe, came to work in the bakery even before their parents died, and it became their whole life. Their daughter, Helen, Mort’s mother, also worked there and that is where Mort grew up. It was common in those times for a family to escape to America and then work hard to eek out a meager living while supporting one another.
“The Store”, as the family always called the business, was not actually a bakery but rather a place that sold day-old breads and bakery goods. Mort’s childhood centered on the small shop in Manhattan, complete with its smells, sounds, customs, and customers. All these things were what made up the fabric of their lives. Mort’s family lived in a Brooklyn tenement and it was a hard life but all the life he knew. It is almost a classic immigrant story complete with the hard working family, supporting each other, and struggling to provide a decent life for each other. The one difference in this story is that Mort’s family, unknown to him until he was an adult, was very wealthy!
Alternating chapters between Mort’s childhood and his more recent years as an adult, the story unfolds with the reader becoming involved in Mort’s struggles to help his family while also trying to better himself and make it through college. This is accomplished only for Mort to find out when he is thirty-six that he is set to inherit millions of dollars that his uncles had somehow hoarded away through success in the stock market and also in bonds.
As the reader goes from past to present and back, one slowly finds out more and more oddities about the bachelor uncles and his parents. Zachter thinks about the long and hard hours they all worked, including himself when he had to attend night school to get his degree. He thinks about his poor mother working all that time for no pay while they struggled at home to put food on the table. So many questions, many not answered, and so much to ponder with this new found wealth makes up a good part of this story. With the marvelous background that sets the tone for what this family goes through, only to shockingly bring us to wonder why was it all necessary when there was all this money?
The story is nostalgic and often amusing and leads the reader to wonder how Mort Zachter will deal with the new found wealth! How will he feel about his family once he realizes what all this money means, and could have meant for all of them for all those years? Will it change his life or is he set in his ways as perhaps his family was? Will the inherited work ethic be something Mort can give up and change? All these questions will come up as the story progresses and one realizes this is a memorable memoir—a family story. How a family’s relationships with each other effect everything in their lives from work, education, religion, love, and of course, the mighty dollar!
Submitted by Karen Haney, July, 2008
To all of us who hold dear family stories of our ancestors making their way to America where the “streets were paved with gold”, readers will appreciate this charming and relatable memoir by Mort Zachter. Mort’s Jewish immigrant grandparents, Max and Lena Wolk, came and opened a bakery in New York’s Lower East Side in 1926. Their bachelor sons, Harry and Joe, came to work in the bakery even before their parents died, and it became their whole life. Their daughter, Helen, Mort’s mother, also worked there and that is where Mort grew up. It was common in those times for a family to escape to America and then work hard to eek out a meager living while supporting one another.
“The Store”, as the family always called the business, was not actually a bakery but rather a place that sold day-old breads and bakery goods. Mort’s childhood centered on the small shop in Manhattan, complete with its smells, sounds, customs, and customers. All these things were what made up the fabric of their lives. Mort’s family lived in a Brooklyn tenement and it was a hard life but all the life he knew. It is almost a classic immigrant story complete with the hard working family, supporting each other, and struggling to provide a decent life for each other. The one difference in this story is that Mort’s family, unknown to him until he was an adult, was very wealthy!
Alternating chapters between Mort’s childhood and his more recent years as an adult, the story unfolds with the reader becoming involved in Mort’s struggles to help his family while also trying to better himself and make it through college. This is accomplished only for Mort to find out when he is thirty-six that he is set to inherit millions of dollars that his uncles had somehow hoarded away through success in the stock market and also in bonds.
As the reader goes from past to present and back, one slowly finds out more and more oddities about the bachelor uncles and his parents. Zachter thinks about the long and hard hours they all worked, including himself when he had to attend night school to get his degree. He thinks about his poor mother working all that time for no pay while they struggled at home to put food on the table. So many questions, many not answered, and so much to ponder with this new found wealth makes up a good part of this story. With the marvelous background that sets the tone for what this family goes through, only to shockingly bring us to wonder why was it all necessary when there was all this money?
The story is nostalgic and often amusing and leads the reader to wonder how Mort Zachter will deal with the new found wealth! How will he feel about his family once he realizes what all this money means, and could have meant for all of them for all those years? Will it change his life or is he set in his ways as perhaps his family was? Will the inherited work ethic be something Mort can give up and change? All these questions will come up as the story progresses and one realizes this is a memorable memoir—a family story. How a family’s relationships with each other effect everything in their lives from work, education, religion, love, and of course, the mighty dollar!
Submitted by Karen Haney, July, 2008
August 24, 2008
'Dough' is the memoir of Mort Zachter, a former accountant and lawyer who wakes up one day to find himself a millionaire. His bachelor uncles, Harry and Joe, who spent most of their lives behind the counter of their family-run bakery in Manhattan's Lower East Side, quietly amassed a fortune that was kept secret from him. After one uncle dies and the other succumbs to dementia, he learns that he is heir to over six million dollars.
Like a natural-born memoirist, Zachter devotes several pages to his inner world, where he struggles to understand why his uncles let him struggle financially when they had ample means to help him out. The feelings of betrayal that are a recurring and dark theme in 'Dough' also give the book its universal quality: all of us have made discoveries, both pleasant and upsetting, that knock our reality off-kilter and make us question how well we really knew a loved one. But too many refuse to move on- they nourish their bruised feelings and experience a passive-aggressive satisfaction in being a 'wronged party'. When Zachter lets go of his resentment, he develops further as a human being. He accepts that his uncles had reasons for hiding their fortune that he will never understand, and he ceases to judge.
'Dough' was an absorbing read from start to finish. The descriptions of the old Lower East Side and Jewish community life were especially good, as they resonated with color and life. If he continues in this vein, Mort Zachter has a glowing future in creative nonfiction and novel writing.
Like a natural-born memoirist, Zachter devotes several pages to his inner world, where he struggles to understand why his uncles let him struggle financially when they had ample means to help him out. The feelings of betrayal that are a recurring and dark theme in 'Dough' also give the book its universal quality: all of us have made discoveries, both pleasant and upsetting, that knock our reality off-kilter and make us question how well we really knew a loved one. But too many refuse to move on- they nourish their bruised feelings and experience a passive-aggressive satisfaction in being a 'wronged party'. When Zachter lets go of his resentment, he develops further as a human being. He accepts that his uncles had reasons for hiding their fortune that he will never understand, and he ceases to judge.
'Dough' was an absorbing read from start to finish. The descriptions of the old Lower East Side and Jewish community life were especially good, as they resonated with color and life. If he continues in this vein, Mort Zachter has a glowing future in creative nonfiction and novel writing.
May 15, 2009
I really did enjoy this book. I like the books message and language used by the author. It is like he is talking to you. I personally do not like fancy language. I prefer saying something clearly. I think when author's use tons of poetic lyrical fancy talk it puts me off. It is like they are trying to impress someone. Who is looking. I much prefer straight talk which often draws you in and pulls you close to the emotions of the character speaking.
and the message. Enjoy life, not at the expense of others, but remember we have only one life and make sure you go after what you want. Sometimes we get all caught up in doing what we should do at the expense of having the fun of doing what we want to do even though this hurts no one. Almost like we feel guilty for being able to follow our dream.
I am very happy for the author. I personally enjoy his writing style. I hope he now writes more books, after leaving his previous tax lawyer job and becoming a full time author. Good luck Mort! All my wishes to you and your family! Your book makes me feel like a friend to you and that is why I finish this note in this way.
PS Your father's illnes and regained health was terribly moving.
and the message. Enjoy life, not at the expense of others, but remember we have only one life and make sure you go after what you want. Sometimes we get all caught up in doing what we should do at the expense of having the fun of doing what we want to do even though this hurts no one. Almost like we feel guilty for being able to follow our dream.
I am very happy for the author. I personally enjoy his writing style. I hope he now writes more books, after leaving his previous tax lawyer job and becoming a full time author. Good luck Mort! All my wishes to you and your family! Your book makes me feel like a friend to you and that is why I finish this note in this way.
PS Your father's illnes and regained health was terribly moving.
July 14, 2008
There are many stories about NYC's lower east side immigrant experience, but this memoir is special because it is honest, simple, and personal. It succeeds as a great example of "write-what-you-know" storytelling, and has requsite elements of hope and redemption: if you work hard, and do the right thing, good things will happen. And while it is very much a Jewish story, it easily generalizes to all families who have developed quirky rules for managing life's challenges. Ultimately, it works because it plays to that fascination some of us have with how past generations managed day-to-day living. Whether this is weird voyeurism or honest curiosity is another debate, but the millions of visitor's to NYC's tenement museum over the last decade attest to the fascination factor. It makes me long for similar stories from the Zito and Balducci clans, and any others who have grew up (or are growing up) in the tenement life.
PS: I loved the postcards from the bakery's traveling customers.
PS: I loved the postcards from the bakery's traveling customers.
December 1, 2009
A patron called in the other day trying to find this book and, upon seeing the summary, I became intrigued and picked it up a few days later for myself. The author, a CPA and lawyer, suddenly, and shockingly, inherits millions of dollars from his bachelor uncles. He had no idea that his family had any money at all, and he struggles to reconcile his newfound wealth with his impoverished upbringing. Not only does the inheritance give him an interesting story to tell, it also supports him while he wrote this book. Though I like the story behind the book, I was bored by the book itself, and ended up not even finishing it. In the end, I don't know if I can feel too sorry for someone who ends up inheriting millions, even if it does mean that his family kept the truth of their wealth from him for years. Also, the writing itself is weak, which makes what could be a compelling story rather lame.
December 23, 2012
I think your reaction to this book depends on what expectations you bring to it more than most.
It is a great memoir of a Jewish man's family who ran a day old bakery for many years, and who discovers upon his father's illness the big family secret they all kept from him the only child of a mother who worked along side her brothers in the bakery but was never paid. This book is a first book by a man who had quite a story to tell. It could be argued it should have been a shorter piece but those who delight in the old-time stories and humor from these two bachelor uncles you will find a gold mine. I could forgive the sometimes novice writing for the emotions well shared and the many surprises the book reveals.
I could think of plenty of friends who would enjoy this book, it won't rock your world but you may remember the jokes and advice, such as "Dress British, Act Yiddish" and other gems from his hard-working secret keeping quirky relatives.
It is a great memoir of a Jewish man's family who ran a day old bakery for many years, and who discovers upon his father's illness the big family secret they all kept from him the only child of a mother who worked along side her brothers in the bakery but was never paid. This book is a first book by a man who had quite a story to tell. It could be argued it should have been a shorter piece but those who delight in the old-time stories and humor from these two bachelor uncles you will find a gold mine. I could forgive the sometimes novice writing for the emotions well shared and the many surprises the book reveals.
I could think of plenty of friends who would enjoy this book, it won't rock your world but you may remember the jokes and advice, such as "Dress British, Act Yiddish" and other gems from his hard-working secret keeping quirky relatives.
February 16, 2008
This is a real fast read. So here's a man, living in New York, whose family (mostly two of his uncles) ran a bread store (they didn't bake the bread, they just distributed bread and cakes, etc.). His mother worked there, basically for nothing, because it was family. He went to college and law school on scholarships because they were not very well off. Then, while he is in law school (after working), as the last uncle, who has Alzheimer's, is being cared for by his parents at home; he finds out that this uncle has amassed over $6 million in investments. His parents have known all along but his father would not have asked for any help and none would have been offered. So this ends up being the story of what happens as the uncle deteriorates and the writer goes back to find out more about his family and how this could have happened.
June 3, 2008
i gave it a three because of the corniness. the author wants to be all things to all people.
he wants us to laugh and he tries too hard like someone re-telling a plot of a simpsons episode. a smile maybe. he isn't good enough to make me feel like a fly on the wall of this fantastic situation. his family has been scraping by for generations, living in tenements-a word he uses like salt- while his two bachelor uncles have amassed a multi-million dollar fortune from a bakery business. he is bitter that his mother toiled away for no pay except for the day-old bread that she could carry home yet she knew about all the money they had in stocks and bond. she knew about it! so what the hell mort? this is a book form of a very good "this american life" type episode. if anyone wants the galley i will mail it to you.
he wants us to laugh and he tries too hard like someone re-telling a plot of a simpsons episode. a smile maybe. he isn't good enough to make me feel like a fly on the wall of this fantastic situation. his family has been scraping by for generations, living in tenements-a word he uses like salt- while his two bachelor uncles have amassed a multi-million dollar fortune from a bakery business. he is bitter that his mother toiled away for no pay except for the day-old bread that she could carry home yet she knew about all the money they had in stocks and bond. she knew about it! so what the hell mort? this is a book form of a very good "this american life" type episode. if anyone wants the galley i will mail it to you.
January 15, 2011
This is a slim book--173 pages in my copy--which I though our book group was reading along with The Education of Little Tree, which isn't really long, either. I would have to say that I actually liked it better, because animals weren't getting injured and dying as they were in the other book. This is called a memoir, and apparently Mort Zachter and Mark Twain both have the same idea about autobiography. You start somewhere, write about that time in your life, and then switch around. This is not written chronogically, but it is rather delightful, just the same. The big mystery is: where did all the money come from, and why didn't the uncles give some out during their lifetime, to the struggling relatives? It is worth the read.
December 14, 2013
The title in this humorous memoir refers to bread as well as the slang for money. When the author's Uncle Harry dies, the last of two Jewish bachelor uncles who ran a Brooklyn bakery for 70 years, he discovered they weren't as poor as he once thought. In fact, they were worth about $6 million. The nicely-written piece is split between the author's growing-up years in a modest apartment to present-day,
after he becomes a CPA/lawyer, starts his own family and is called on to become a parent to his own parents. Why didn't Uncle Harry spread the wealth through his relatives, is a question the author grapples with throughout his journey. There are a lot of lessons here of which adult children can relate.
after he becomes a CPA/lawyer, starts his own family and is called on to become a parent to his own parents. Why didn't Uncle Harry spread the wealth through his relatives, is a question the author grapples with throughout his journey. There are a lot of lessons here of which adult children can relate.
March 2, 2014
An interesting little book given to me by a friend. Dough is the story of two uncles of the author who owned a bakery in NYC. They worked every day of their lives and lived like paupers. This memoir shows that they clearly weren't as when they aged and became senile one had amassed millions. The nephew who wrote this book tell the story of the two uncles and his mother, their sister. She and her husband never were helped by these uncles even though she worked for them. She was never paid. In the end the nephew figures a way his mother will be taken care of and so will he. An interesting twist.
September 1, 2016
The good:
- Easy read. I read this book on the bus and the train and while waiting and finished it in one day's worth of bus, train, and wait time.
- Lots of funny, colorful anecdotes.
- Interesting premise. Held my attention.
The not so good:
- Fails to explain motives of ANYBODY in the book.
- Lots and lots of vignettes where Zachter assumes you hold values that allow you to understand why he's feeling indignant. Explain, dammit!
- Very little follow through. Premise is, guy finds out he's heir to 5 million dollars. OK, fine. So instead of finding out what he does about it, we get a bunch of flashbacks? Come on man, don't tease.
- Easy read. I read this book on the bus and the train and while waiting and finished it in one day's worth of bus, train, and wait time.
- Lots of funny, colorful anecdotes.
- Interesting premise. Held my attention.
The not so good:
- Fails to explain motives of ANYBODY in the book.
- Lots and lots of vignettes where Zachter assumes you hold values that allow you to understand why he's feeling indignant. Explain, dammit!
- Very little follow through. Premise is, guy finds out he's heir to 5 million dollars. OK, fine. So instead of finding out what he does about it, we get a bunch of flashbacks? Come on man, don't tease.
April 8, 2008
Zachter's book focuses on the lives of his two eccentric uncles who had dedicated their lives to a small bakery where nothing was baked on Manhattan's Lower East Side. In his mid-30s Zachter discovers that his "frugal"--but that's an understatement--uncles actually had amassed several million dollars. The book has a few mildly amusing stories. A magazine article probably would have sufficed for me, although the book is a very quick read. Perhaps readers who grew up in the area where the stories are centered might identify with and have a deeper appreciation for the book.
July 6, 2008
Really, really interesting story.
It sounds like a great fantasy -- to find out your family had millions of dollars, hidden away, and it will all be yours. But in reality, the discovery of his family's fortune is much more complicated. Why would they keep it a secret? How would their lives have been better if they'd spent some of it? Or given some away?
Zachter tells his family's story (and his own story, of what happens after he discovers the secret) very well. He manages to be sympathetic to everyone involved, while still questioning their choices. Fascinating.
It sounds like a great fantasy -- to find out your family had millions of dollars, hidden away, and it will all be yours. But in reality, the discovery of his family's fortune is much more complicated. Why would they keep it a secret? How would their lives have been better if they'd spent some of it? Or given some away?
Zachter tells his family's story (and his own story, of what happens after he discovers the secret) very well. He manages to be sympathetic to everyone involved, while still questioning their choices. Fascinating.
May 19, 2013
After seeing it returned by a patron at the library, I decided it would be an interesting read. Although it was good, especially reading about immigrant life, the depression, and the inner workings of this family, I kept expecting more. The book cover alluded to much more, when in reality the book cover pretty much told the whole story. I loved the short chapters, the detail of their lives, the history; but I felt too much information was given away on the book cover. Keep the reader wanting more. Don't give it away before we even read the book.
February 4, 2016
On its surface, Dough is a memoir about Mort Zachter’s discovery that his impoverished, senile Uncle Harry, who ran a bread store on the Lower East Side of Manhattan, was secretly a multimillionaire with a hoarding problem (sort of a Jewish Collyer brother). In searching through family history to solve the riddle of Harry’s riches, Zachter also gives readers a glimpse into the immigrant experience of the early 20th century, Jewish family life, and the true value of money. Dough is a quick but thoughtful read written with warmth.
September 5, 2008
This was a bittersweet memoir of a man that discovers that his two jewish uncles that ran a breadshop in New York have six million dollars in investments, though they lived like nearly destitute bachelors all their lives. He tries to piece the story of their lives in the 30's and 40's and figure out why they lived as they did as he clears out their apartment and hoarded papers, treasures, and junk. It was a story of family and identity, amusing and wistful and a little bit sad. I enjoyed it.
July 25, 2008
I'm still not sure why I liked this book so much. What a dysfunctional family! And yet the author told it all with forgiving humor. It was an easy read and pulled me in quickly. Perhaps it was because it comes across as much a mystery to be solved as a memoir. Perhaps it was the fascination of a memoir in which I couldn't relate personally to one single thing, so it was a glimpse into a completely different life. In fact, I couldn't put it down and read the whole thing in one day.
September 9, 2008
What an interesting story! Not the best-written book I've read - the author writes more like the CPA he once was than a professional writer - but the fascinating story more than makes up for it. I especially enjoyed the insights into life in a Jewish community in the 1960s and '70s. While I thought the author let his personal bitterness show through a tad too broadly, I couldn't help but wonder how I'd feel were I in his shoes.
April 11, 2021
DIdn't finish this book. COmpelling story, but after 100 pages I felt like I got the gist. Poor family discovers that Alzheimer Victim, Bachelor uncle was a secret millionaire who never shared a penny.
What I missed in this book was getting to know the author. He did talk a little bit about his disappointment, but I really needed to hear more descriptions about how he was feeling, just how poor he was, more about love...just more.
What I missed in this book was getting to know the author. He did talk a little bit about his disappointment, but I really needed to hear more descriptions about how he was feeling, just how poor he was, more about love...just more.
October 26, 2012
A story heard many times before. Family members, in this case two uncles, work long hours seven days a week while living in circumstances one step above a tenement. At the same time accumulating a portfolio worth millions.
They willingly let family members struggle and get second mortgages rather than reveal their wealth. Of course they die without spending a dime and Uncle Sam is the big winner.
A cautionary tale of what the love of money will do to you.
Well written!
They willingly let family members struggle and get second mortgages rather than reveal their wealth. Of course they die without spending a dime and Uncle Sam is the big winner.
A cautionary tale of what the love of money will do to you.
Well written!
October 12, 2007
This is a lovely book that examines the author's joy and dismay when, after living a frugal life as part of a poor family, he finds his eccentric uncles have left him millions of dollars from their bakery in Lower Manhattan. Well written in a "collapsing" time line, the book paints vivid portraits of a 20th Century Jewish NYC family. Recommended.
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