Collapse in Goobersville

Neil Nudelman, a former university teacher with a rich professional career, has been unemployed for almost three years. Desperately struggling to make ends meet, his attempts at gainful employment are plagued by one disaster after another: whether it's glazing a window in the house of a former university colleague, doing literary hack work for a "writer" who hires him as an editor for his pornographic novel, or the futile effort to claim disability benefits. All the while, he wages a losing battle against his boorish neighbours, who are making his life a living hell, and confronts an imaginary Group that exerts psychological pressure on him, subjects him to cross-examinations, and absurdly twists his "stories".

The author recounts all of Nudelman's escapades and calamities with wit and a flair for outspoken farce, but also with sympathy for the unfortunate man who can't find a helping hand within the system to get back on his feet and use his qualifications. Nudelman has virtually no chance against the runaway machine, and so he hardly resists the confused psychiatric reports or the conclusions of the police investigation. Biting satire transforms into a subtly ironic detachment, allowing one to survive even the deepest crisis amidst overwhelming consumerism.

In the character of Nudelman, the author presents his diagnosis of society in the 1960s and 1970s with such an irresistible dose of black humour that the reader often can't help but laugh out loud.