This outstanding family novel, set in a Jewish neighborhood of Chicago, is "the fullest articulation of the generational conflict between Jewish fathers and sons," writes Alexander Bloom in his 1986 book "Prodigal Sons". The central character, a fifteen year old boy in rebellion against the petit bourgeois values of his family, engineers an affair between his flamboyant aunt and his easy-going Gentile cousin by marriage. He then leaves his father and moves into the house of this new couple, where he experiences the excitement and problem of an open relationship.
This outstanding family novel, set in a Jewish neighborhood of Chicago, is "the fullest articulation of the generational conflict between Jewish fathers and sons," writes Alexander Bloom in his 1986 book "Prodigal Sons". The central character, a fifteen year old boy in rebellion against the petit bourgeois values of his family, engineers an affair between his flamboyant aunt and his easy-going Gentile cousin by marriage. He then leaves his father and moves into the house of this new couple, where he experiences the excitement and problem of an open relationship.