Max Wolinsky comes from a family of mostly upstanding salesmen. On the eve of his son's bar mitzvah, he returns home to Philadelphia, where he plans to put the finishing touches on a not-so-honorable business transaction and then head back to Florida. Nothing, though, goes as planned. Coming home, it seems, means coming to terms with his family. It means facing the expectations of his father, the needs of his stroke-addled uncle, "and" the adolescent tribulations of his son. If Max can be civil to his ex-wife, listen to his son, and pull off one last scam so his father and uncle can live a better life, everything might turn out all right. But Max doesn't figure on meeting Estelle. And he certainly doesn't count on his uncle, who, unbeknownst to anyone, has his own master plan for the family. "Responsible Men" lays bare a private world in prose that rings with honesty, intelligence, humor, wisdom, and, above all, humanity.