Home Economics
Shmuel Elazar, a 60-year-old real estate agent, discovers that his accountant has been showering luxuries on a young female student, including keeping her in a hotel. With the accountant`s financial collapse, a widening crack opens up in Shmuel`s life too. His greatest passion is squeezing fruit juices in a home juicer, but the venom that fills him now leads him to sell his real estate agency and decide to finally start living, although he isn`t sure what that means.
Shmuel shares his life-and the book-with his wife Dafna: one chapter for him, one for her. Dafna, a tempestuous, sharp-tongued woman whose feminine charms are on the wane, heads a project to rescue gifted youth from the “dregs” of Israel`s poor towns.
Money drives everything in the Elazar home, and beyond: it fans the flames of envy, love, disappointment and insult. Now without family or social ties, Shmuel and Dafna must rediscover one another, as well as their 30-year-old son, Ehud, who has come back into their lives after a long separation-and even that, they suspect, is only for financial reasons.
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“ A successful comedy that levels focused criticism at Israeli society. ”
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“ An enjoyable, vivacious novel, written as a single, long, energetic breath-a sensitive and profound book, wild and touching in an unsentimental way.”
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“ Damn it - the boy knows how to write!”