But referring to a minor character based on, and sharing a name with, a living person whom the author has never met (the real-life youngest Netanayhu brother, Iddo) by the derogatory terms “runt” and “runtling” is as inappropriate as describing someone as a “cripple.” Cohen’s grudge may be based on Iddo’s reluctance to return his telephone calls and meet him in person, a reasonable strategy for a member of a prominent family who retains his privacy. Calling a family that creates chaos “the Yahus” is clever. In fact, I find that they almost defy description they include Yoni’s running naked through the winter snow, Iddo “curled fetal atop a mound of gingerbread house scraps and glass” from the broken television cabinet he has “tipped over face-first,” and Edith assaulting Tzila and “tackling her into a snowbed.”Ĭohen expresses his fondness and admiration for Bloom, but his final comments about some of the real people on whom several minor characters are based takes on a disturbing edge.
The final scenes aren’t funny, they aren’t satiric, they’re not burlesque. At this point, not only do they lose control of their guests, but Cohen himself starts to lose control of his narrative. The Blums remain bewilderingly passive in the face of this increasingly bizarre behavior.
Ben Zion, Tzila, and their oblivious sons wreck the Blums’ home. The Blums politely invite them to stay at their home, and their guests’ increasingly chaotic interactions reflect both inter-family dynamics as well as the tensions between Israel and the Diaspora. Ben Zion and his family arrive at the college for his presentation to the faculty only to find that their hotel reservations have been inexplicably cancelled.
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