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Dough: A Memoir | 
 enlarge | Author: Mort Zachter
Publisher: Collins
Category: Book
List Price: $13.95
Buy New: $7.50
You Save: $6.45 (46%)
New (42) Used (19) Collectible (1) from $6.18
Avg. Customer Rating:  52 reviews
Sales Rank: 38906
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 208
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.4
Dimensions (in): 8.2 x 5.5 x 0.6
ISBN: 0061663417
Dewey Decimal Number: 305.8940747
EAN: 9780061663413
ASIN: 0061663417
Publication Date: August 1, 2008
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new copy [zachter]
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Product Description
Mort Zachter's childhood revolved around a small, struggling shop on Manhattan's Lower East Side that sold bread and pastries. His was a classic story—a close-knit, hard-working family struggling to make it in America. Only they were rich. Very rich. At age thirty-six, after struggling to work his way though night school, Zachter discovered that his bachelor uncles, who ran the shop, had amassed millions of dollars in stocks and bonds. As he starts to clean out their apartment, Zachter discovers clues to their hidden lives that raise more questions than they answer. And in the end, he comes to realize that although he may not understand his family—and maybe never will—forgiveness and acceptance are what matter most.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 47 more reviews...
 very engaging memoir November 25, 2008
Right from the first page, Zachter captures the reader with the improbable phone call from his uncle's broker. From then on, the story weaves easily between decades and focus, from Zachter, his uncles and parents, to the Store and the East Village of New York City. It's a sad, poignant, puzzling but warmly told tale of how some things we don't want to change do, whereas other things, which desperately need to change, sadly never do. But the best thing to come out of this was that it gave Zachter a chance to write and to share the story with the rest of us.
 Interesting Read, But not Spellbinding October 30, 2008
While I found this book to be relatively enjoyable, it wasn't nearly as interesting as I thought it would be. The descriptions of the neighborhood and the bakery were of interest, as was the modest ways of the uncles who were from the old world and lived accordingly. However, I have known several older individuals in my life with the same tendencies and never thought their stories were worth telling. They simply grew up in a different time and had different ways of dealing with the issue of money. Even my grandmother walked three miles to pay a bill rather than pay for a stamp. Interesting, but not particularly compelling.
A Good Quick Read October 23, 2008
This slim book was very well-written, and a nice, quick read. I enjoyed the author's descriptions of the New York City neighborhood where he grew up, and of the Jewish bakery that his uncle's ran. I found it amazing how the author's mother's loyalty to her family ran so deep that she gave up a promising teaching career to spend decades working at her brothers' bakery without pay. I don't know that many people in today's world would be willing to make such a deep sacrifice, even for family.
Emotional Journey Goes Beyond the Bakery to Understand the Root of His Uncles' Values October 16, 2008
Waste not, want not. It's more than a cliche but truly an inbred way of living for immigrant Jewish families who have experienced the emotional desecration that comes with abject poverty. Such was the case with Mort Zachter, a CPA and a lawyer, who found out in 1994 that his two workaholic uncles, both confirmed bachelors, had saved a million dollars each and placed it all in money market accounts. Never to call attention to themselves, they lived their lives as paupers wearing worn suits and taking advantage of free clinics. Zachter's shocking revelation is the starting point of his warm and shrewdly observant memoir about a generation who hoarded what they earned to the point of obsessive compulsion and made sure their children understood the value of a dollar. All the while, the uncles carried forth the tradition of a bakery established by the author's Russian-immigrant, maternal grandparents in 1926 in Manhattan's Lower East Side.
The author brings his Uncles Harry and Joe to vivid life as a study in contrasts. Lacking the business education his older brother had, Uncle Joe astutely sums up their relationship - "He's the boss, and I'm the horse". When both eventually passed away, Zachter went through the inevitable stages upon his monetary discovery - grief, elation, resentment, and finally a stronger appreciation of his family along with a greater sense of personal humility. The resentment is understandable given that he, his wife Nurit, and their two adopted children struggled financially as he earned his degrees and scrimped to make mortgage payments and repay school loans. The author has a painterly style in describing his childhood as he focuses on the details with imaginative fervor and shows how emotionally resonant his family bonds became in living by the Principles of Kahruth. It's a charmingly reflective work that goes well beyond the confines of the family bakery.
 ok read, nothing exciting. September 23, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I may have gone into this book with a bit too much anticipation, in hopes of juicy family secrets, lies, twists and turns, but in the end I was let down. Every time I picked up the book I was expecting an ascend towards a climax, but it never seemed to come. Despite the reference of money in the title, the author seems to use it simply to tell the story of a run-of-the-mill Jewish-American family, money or none.
But it was the simpleness of the family, the quirkiness of the characters and the peak inside Jewish daily traditions that kept my interest. It was an easy read, but not something I would pass on to a friend.
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