The Palace Thief

“I am an accountant, that calling of exactitude and scruple, and my crime was small.” 

At the outset of his narrative, Roth wishes to quantify his transgression from virtue. He draws upon his authority as an accountant to qualify that his crime was minor and thus the reader should not judge him too harshly. 

“He had a sister, as did I, and his father, like mine, was never at home, so that in a funny way it might have seemed for a while that our families, in our identical houses, were interchangeable.” 

Roth sets up the premise that he and Eugene Peters had identical family setups to plant the idea that they had equal opportunities to begin with, then destroys it as he explains how their paths diverge, given their families’ different histories and attitudes. 

“In one year, unable to settle on a pattern for our living room drapes, she installed three separate sets. Our living room, I should add, is large, and so are its windows. Of course, I could afford ten sets of drapes, but that is not the point.” 

This passage illustrates the difference between Roth and his spendthrift wife Scheherazade. Whereas she delights in the ability to exercise her consumer rights excessively, Roth exhibits little pleasure in spending and therefore does not enjoy the fruits of his labors as an accountant.