Family Business

THE STORY: Old, rich and ailing, Isaiah Stein dominates the lives of his four grown sons, three of whom are still living at home. Bitter over the death of his wife in an accident for which he holds one of his sons responsible, and aware that his own time is short, the old man constructs a will which closely controls the disposition of his sizable estate and which, after he experiences a fatal heart attack, exacerbates the tensions which have been building between his sons. One, married and establishing a career in psychology, is desperately in debt; another, who has taken over the family business, wants to keep a tight rein on the money; a third, obsessed with preserving home and family, tries to keep things as they were when their mother was alive; while the youngest brother, a hitherto secret homosexual, wants to use his share of the estate to gain his independence from the others. Inevitably antagonisms mount as each brother maneuvers to his own advantage, but from this a basic, inescapable truth emerges-these men are a family, four brothers whose shared love and loyalty will, in the final essence, transcend the bitterness which their confrontation has provoked.Goldberg, Dick is the author of 'Family Business ', published 1978 under ISBN 9780822203810 and ISBN 0822203812.