Book Review by Noelle
This is an
autobiographical novel of a man trying to experience, and find his place in,
the world – while trying to support himself. He is a self-proclaimed “adventurer
of dreams” and his first adventure is in Vietnam during the war there. He
experiences the conflict first hand, never expecting to see the next day’s
dawn, until he decides he’s had enough and returns home.
He wallows in the comfort
of western civilization for a few weeks, before the feeling of well-being wears
off. There follows a series of experiences that leave him discouraged: a
distributor of laundry powder samples to housewives, never being able to
fulfill his quota; an assembler of tiny components in a sewing machine factory;
a hunting guide who’s never fired a gun in Cameroon; part-time custodian at a
Picasso exhibit; a night watchman who’s afraid of the dark; a volunteer in a
kibbutz after the Yom Kippur War, where he works in a brush factory while
reading the Torah at night – all of these jobs are described with great wit and
not a little humor.
His descriptions of being
a custodian at the Picasso exhibit resonated profoundly with me; as a tour
guide I experienced many of the appalling and curious tourist behaviors he did,
but was never as sanguine. I certainly couldn’t describe them with as much fun.
His descriptive paragraphs
are vivid, if composed of one long run-on sentence:
“On miniature stuffed
wicker stools in front of small bistros with a single, naked light bulb and
walls painted in absinthe green of Sahara blue, unshaven men in the black and
white checkered keffiyeh drink coffee in tiny dirty glasses while others,
wearing turbans and wrapped in old coasts, string their sup’ah absently to the
sounds of lamenting Arabic music.”
Home again in Europe, he
takes a dream job (good pay, nights off, and the use of his creative skills) in
a professional training center with several thousand, minority apprentice
mechanics, masons, electricians, fitters, butchers, hairdressers and florists.
There he teaches a bit of law, accounting, correspondence, French, civics and
economics. More laughs, this time out loud.
Unfortunately, he runs
into the brotherhood of ‘sworn-in methodologists,’ which make his job a
nightmare. And more laughs, this time based on my own personal experience.
And then, he writes a
book…
To
read Breadline is a unique experience, and one I recommend everyone
try. Part philosophy, part humor, part captivating prose – this book has it
all.
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