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Zalmon the Fish-Peddler
Abe Schmukler is the man in the cloaks-and-suits business from Los Angeles. Father meets Abe when Abe is in New York on business (and to find a wife) and selects him to marry Fania. Although Fania doesn’t love Abe, she decides to marry him anyway to honor her father’s wishes. After settling in Los Angeles, Fania discovers that Abe is a serious gambler—he spends all his days playing poker with friends, paying little attention to Fania. And although he has money, he’s incredibly cheap and only buys nice things for Fania to show her off to his friends.
Abe Schmukler Quotes in Bread Givers
The Bread Givers quotes below are all either spoken by Abe Schmukler or refer to Abe Schmukler. For each quote, you can also see the other characters and themes related to it (each theme is indicated by its own dot and icon, like this one:
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Chapter 12 Quotes
“Why don’t you read the way you used to when you were home?” I asked.
“I can’t look at a book. My head stopped with my troubles. Ach! How can you people know what it is to be miserable as I am.”
The proud grand lady crumpled before my eyes into nothing but an East Side yenteh, with a broken heart.
So this is what it was to be the wife of a cloaks-and-suits millionaire!
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“You hard heart!” Fania threw up her hands at me. “Come, Bessie. Let’s leave her to her mad education. She’s worse than Father with his Holy Torah.”
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Abe Schmukler Character Timeline in Bread Givers
The timeline below shows where the character Abe Schmukler appears in Bread Givers. The colored dots and icons indicate which themes are associated with that appearance.
Chapter 5
...before Father brings home another man he found through the matchmaker Zaretsky. His second man, Abe Schmukler, is in the cloaks-and-suits business. He came from Los Angeles to buy clothing for...
(full context)
...convincing show, and from the outside it looks like she really is in love with Abe. The night before the wedding, though, she breaks down as Bessie, who is clearly jealous,...
(full context)
...other beautiful California scenes. The finally her “first letter” arrives. In it, she confesses that Abe Schmukler has a gambling problem and spends all his nights in poker parlors. She feels...
(full context)
Chapter 12
...outer appearance. Sure enough, Fania admits how lonely she is where she lives: her husband (Abe) is cheap and only buys her diamonds to show her off to people. He spends...
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