Customer Reviews

Goodbye Columbus

5 star:		(31)
4 star:		(22)
3 star:		(8)
2 star:		(3)
1 star:		(5)

 

 

Philip Roth is a great writer. Yeah, we've all heard this at one point or another (at least those of you taking and wasting time to read a review of one of his books). This was Mr. Roth's first published work, a short novel and five short stories that forced us to realize this man had arrived violently on the scene as a powerful literary force. Let's talk about the stories in this collection:

"Goodbye, Columbus" is, honestly, without the standard hyperbole so many people slab into reviews such as this, one of the best novels I have ever read. It was written by a twenty-five year old man who was only going to get better (as his work from the mid-1980s to the present firmly establishes) yet here we have the wisdom of our great American gods. It is a beautiful story, funny and painful and filled with truths anyone in those recent post-college, still-not-finding-one's self perspective could learn and grow from. I love this story, and it is filled with agonizing self-analytical material that shows who it is we are dealing with, the intellect and the passion, the savagry and the wit. There are not too many single stories of American authors I could recommend more highly than this book, in particular the five page sequence from which this story gets its title. It is haunting and true, one of the rare glories of English in narrative form. If for nothing else, get this book to read this lovely novella. It is, profoundly, a masterpiece (not a term I use lightly either, being the bitter cynic I am--check out other reviews I've written--I can get rather mean)>

Among the other stories, the most celebrated is "Conversion of the Jews", and for good reason. This is another gorgeously written tale about self-discovery and the agony of those questions all beginning with 'Why?' Here is a story questioning faith, questioning the idea of God or a higher power that has been transformed into such a makeshift mythology by all the varying faiths, why bother, it asks, what is the point and is it real and who are we and why are we here and why why why why why? This is a great story.

Sadly, this collection is begun with the two tales I have so widely praised. The remaining stories are good--very good, in fact, but following up "Goodbye, Columbus" and "Conversion of the Jews", something is lost as they are unable (quite understandably--what 25 year old author is going to maintain such sustained greatness? It took Roth 27 years to return to this passion in "The Counterlife", and then he expanded from there, getting better and better progressively, and never looking back)to keep up the fascination. Now this is not to say there is anything wrong with these other stories. Had they been all there was in this collection I would have looked back with nodding approval and said, "Hey, this guy is going somewhere." But they are not the first two stories and are almost awkwardly placed as an aftermath of a developing great author. Get this book urgently, and read them all. Just don't allow yourself to be soured by the slightly lesser material following the first two masterworks.

Goodbye, Columbus is a coming of age story, a summer romance between a poor boy and a wealthy girl. Many themes that were to show up in much more detail in his later works are presented in embryonic form in this novella, his first major work. Being Jewish in America, sex, class boundaries, the American Way: All Roth subjects, all handled with intelligence and compassion.

Neil is the typical poor Jewish boy enamoured with Brenda, the classy, self-assured, rich girl. He shows a rare spark of confidence when he calls her for a date after first meeting her at a swimming pool, when she accepts and they meet, he finds that he really doesn't know what to do from there. But, they bumble through the beginnings of a relationship, mutually attracted physically, diametrically opposed socially. Neil has a few 'poor' ideas and thoughts that Brenda cannot relate to, while she accepts such luxuries as a maid or 'getting her nose fixed' with such ease and complacency that we - and Neil - are amazed. Over the summer, their relationship develops further, with the typical ups and downs of love colouring the journey.

Neil is the 'I' character of the story, and it is through his point of view that we watch the story unfold. However, even though the story is in first person, there is never much of his personality revealed through contemplative thought or reflection. Instead, we learn who he is from the way he interacts with Brenda and others, and from the way he studies the events in which he is involved. By the end of the novella, we (mostly) understand his motives and ideas, and though, admittedly, it is a little difficult to imagine Neil existing outside the scope of the novel, that actually plays into the theme of the story. Neil is searching for meaning, for a reason to keep on existing, and he considers that in Brenda, he has found it. Whether this is true or not becomes a large focus in the novel, particularly when, later on, she repeatedly reveals to him that she is in fact her own person, with her own ideas, and that sometimes they won't mesh with his.

Brenda, on the other hand, remains a complete mystery to both the reader and Neil. Because we are never allowed to see her thoughts, and because her and Neil have such a different social background, she is someone who we try to understand, but inevitably fail. At times, Neil will say or do something and she will become upset, or tender, or both, and Neil will be so confused that he simply accepts. This can be frustrating for the reader, because Brenda is an appealing character, and it would be nice for him to have the gumption to search deeper within her for meaning and thought, but unfortunately he rarely does. Interestingly, this doesn't come off so much as a failing on Roth's part as an author, but Neil's as a character.

As stated above, the typical themes and ideas that Roth was to develop more fully in his later works are present here. There is the same easy insight into the mundane reality of life, and the same simple joy in, say, eating a piece of fruit or swimming in a pool. Goodbye, Columbus is a story that focuses on one single idea, that being the summer romance between two people that could not have a relationship in any other situation, and it explores it in a remarkably fulfilling way. Admittedly, the very Jewish quality of the writing and ideas may not be as identifiable for a non-Jewish person, but speaking as a man of no faith, I didn't find it to be all that much of a problem. Also, the casual racism towards African-Americans may be off-putting, but again, it didn't upset the flow of the novel.

To conclude, what Roth has done here is to introduce himself as an author, and for a twenty-six year old, it is an impressive introduction. Having read other works of his, I would recommend it as a good starting point. If you like Goodbye, Columbus - and I am quite certain everyone would - then you will love his later works. If not, not. And at only 140 pages, it is worth everyone's time to check out.

Goodbye, Columbus is the story of Neil Klugman from poor Newark and Brenda Patimkin from an upper-crust family in Short Hills and their relationship over a summer. Neil relates the story of his love for the beautiful Brenda, a love in which the two share little in common. He presents his hopes and dreams and his ultimate realizations about the state of the world and about himself. The novella is ultimately a beautiful, complex coming-of-age story which it seems everyone goes through.

Goodbye, Columbus is one of the best books I have read. It was so realistic and easy to relate to. I think that I have had a relationship similar to every one related in the novel. There are so many great insights to be found here. The novella isn't a difficult read, but one should definitely be aware of a lot of the symbols (such as the title, the fruit, the lions, and the uncle at the wedding) to glean the most from it. I will also say a word about the short stories. All of them, particularly "The Conversion of the Jews," were wonderful. They alone would make the book worth five stars; they just seem to get forgotten because of the masterpiece the opening novella is.

In Goodbye, Columbus, Philip Roth weaves a tale about the assimilation of the American Jew which reached its height in the 1950's. As outward displays of anti-semitism began to decrease, the Jewish community faced a moral crisis. How much of our heritage need we or should we retain in this "golden land".
The message of Philip Roth in all of his works, but especially his inaugural one, is that American Jews have payed a price for acceptance. They have traded in their ghetto mentality for a ticket to the American Dream. While many would welcome such a transformation, Roth unabashedly condemns it.
In the character of Brenda Patimkin, we are presented with the archtypical "Jewish American Princess" materialistic yet vulnerable. Neil Klugman is exactly the opposite, the symbol of the "old-world" Jew who lives with his Aunt and Uncle in the city. Despite their differences Brenda and Neil eventually fall in love only to discover that their inner attitudes are the diametric opposites to their outward characteristics. It is Brenda who is concerned in a old fashioned sense about what her parents think of her pre-marital affair.
In Goodbye, Columbus Roth describes the foibles and makeup of the Jewish American community which, like Newark, was coming apart at the seams in the middle of the twentieth century.
H.Brookman-Elizabeth, New Jersey

The first five chapters of Philip Roth's Goodbye, Columbus follow his protagonist Neil Klugman through a romanticized post college summer. Roth introduces this straightforward prose with a sentence that does not waste anytime, "The first time I saw Brenda"(p 3). This sentence draws the reader quickly into a book that does not spend pages on exposition, rather Roth starts out with action and fills in any gaps as they arise. This writing style is beautiful to read, and perfectly matches the quick, to the point feeling of a summertime romance. The story, like the prose, is not over packed. It begins, as stated, with the first time Neil meets Brenda Patimkin. The feeling of young love jumps off the first page, when Neil watches Brenda walk away, "She caught the bottom of her suit between thumb and index finger and flicked what flesh had been showing back where it belonged. My blood jumped" (p 3). And the reader, along with Neil, is hooked on Brenda from the beginning. Roth is careful to make the feelings in the book apparent, from the first we feel as though we are about to embark on a summer of relaxation and love. But Roth's love is not married couple adult love; it is love like the cashier in Updike's A &P. It is love at first sight. It is pretty girl by the pool kind of love. This feeling of Neil's love for Brenda is only made stronger by Roth's evocation of summer. The dominant feeling in the book though, is lust. Neil begins his relationship with Brenda after watching her at the pool, and after that he is always bringing sex to the foreground of he book. The description of Neil and Brenda's escapade in the pool shows Neil's youthful obsession with the female body, "Her breasts swam towards me like two pink-nosed fish and she let me hold them"(p 17). It does not end there; after he ate dinner with Brenda's family he sat at his desk in the library and, "watched the hot high-breasted teen-age girls walk twitchingly up the wide flight of marble stairs"(p 32). And he describes his lust for other women as "academic and time passing" showing that may not feel anything towards the girls that walk by him, but that should not stop him from thinking about them (p 32). The constant remembrance of sex in the novel is the most effective method Roth uses of getting his mood across. Without it the spirit of summer, young love, and adventure would be gone. Neil and Brenda's relationship would be dull and flat; the afternoons at the library would be spent solely on thinking about work, and story would be deflated. Roth did not, however, write an erotic book that talks only about sex. He does recognize what a key role sex, lust, and love play in the lives of his twenty-year-old characters. He uses it as a framework for which to place the deeper, less common story.

The book's brilliant.

Here's one thing that's not in the book that perhaps sheds some light on understanding the title: Across the street from the Newark Library, where the lead character works, is a park containing a statue of Christopher Columbus.

After reading this book many years ago, I was puzzled by the title. The "Columbus record" scenes to which the title refers did not seem as climactic and important to be highlighted. The Columbus record belongs to a second tier character, and yes, while the scene undergirds themes of coming of age and loss, the scene just didn't seem to be that important. But when you tie that coming-of-age theme to the statue of the explorer across from the lead character's workplace, where Neil no doubt ate lunch regularly, then you realize that Goodbye, Columbus, is Philip Roth's Goodbye to Berlin.

(I refer especially to the last scene in Berlin, in which all the characters in Isherwood's novel are having a picnic...no big deal, until you realize they are Jews and homosexuals and intellectuals and everyone else who, if they fail to get out, will be doomed shortly by the Third Reich. And all of it is left unsaid, the history is left to comment on the work on its own.)

In Columbus, the stakes are lower but analogous. The lead character is going to leave Newark ... he still works there, but he's going to say goodbye to that statue across the street, by extention the city. It's all unsaid but after the lead character gets out of Newark, the construction of I-78 will mean the beautiful neighborhood where Neil and his family lived will be torn apart; after that, Newark faces a particularly corrupt administration that starts the flight of businesses and sets the stage for the three days of devastating riots in 1967 (the ruins of which stood for more than 20 years) and the flight of half the population from the city.

Goodbye to Columbus was written while the forces that destroyed Newark were inchoate, but it only means that in this case, Roth was prescient.

Philip Roth obviously doesn't believe in stretching his imagination too much - the main story here and most of the supporting shorter stories revolve around Jewish boys growing up around Newark, New Jersey. His real strength however lies in his ability to take these characters and describe and examine what makes them tick, and imbue them with just enough personal identity to distinguish them from each other and allow them to sink into our consciousness.
"Goodbye Columbus" the story is a touching tale of a summer romance between two individuals from very different social circles. There isn't much plot, not very much happens and the moral dilemma that ultimately shapes the fate of the relationship is a bit hard to relate to in these promiscuous times. Roth doesn't spend much time on that aspect of the plot, presuming perhaps that his contemporary reader would be only too familiar with the portrayed dilemma. Reading it at the start of the 21st century I feel unable to fully empathize with the protagonists' situation. However the prose is well observed, the situations and dialogue are witty and amusing and although the ending is a bit weak, I feel the beauty of the writing transcends generational barriers.

The short stories are more pointed, and pithier, and perhaps make for better reading. As in Roth's other work, the characters are mostly very Jewish, and many revolve around particularly Jewish themes, feelings and situations. However I still found myself well able to identify with the narrators, despite being handicapped by my obvious goyishness.

The great brilliance and talent of Philip Roth announce themselves to the world in this first book. Much of what Roth would be later admired for is present in this work. A remarkable capacity for creating memorable characters, a tremendous liveliness and humor in language, a somewhat sarcastic view of American reality mixed up with a deeply romantic and idealistic one, fervent sexual interest. There is also in these works the kind of criticism of his home- team, the American Jewish family which would make him anathema to certain leading figures of the Jewish literary ( Irving Howe) and cultural establishment. The major piece of writing , the novella ' Goodbye Columbus' seems like it is the heir apparent to ' The Great Gatsby'. There is a mastery of tone , precociously mature. That tone and that control will lead to the less successful line in Roth's writing, in which the narrator ( When She was Good) and the writer appear to be seeking entrance to the cathedral of Jamesian Anglo- American literature. This novella has many skilled and interesting pieces of writing excellently evokes the world of Jewish American suburbia its business and family worlds. The love affair between Neil and Brenda Patinkin has a certain unsatisfactory quality especially in his ungenerous portrait of Brenda. The scene with the little black boy in the library fascinated by the works of Gaugin may be sentimental but is quite moving. As for the stories they too have a brilliance, and they also have that criticism of middle - class Jewish piety which Roth will be lambasted for .These are very good pieces of writing and would stand well on their own. But when Roth wrote ' Portnoy's Complaint ' he changed the way his previous work would be seen .And all would be understand as simply preliminary to that outrageous work of true literary genius. This is a fine book, but that is a great one.

Sadly, the kindle edition is replete with typos - seemingly from an un-proofread OCR translation. A truly great book, but completely unreadable. Too bad Roth's publisher isn't available on the itunes store...

Not many writers had such a great debut as Philip Roth with his `Goodbye, Columbus'. His harshest critics may say he has had ups and downs in his career, but no one can say that his first book is not superb --even those who don't like it. Crafting with a short novella, Roth was able to display all his qualities that he would develop later on with his books.

`Columbus' is nothing more than the simple story of a summertime love. A Jewish boy named Neil meets a girl, who belongs to an upper level in society, they fall in love, and, above everything, have to deal with their social difference. But the way Roth writer is so simply profound and beautiful, that it is impossible no to be touched by this little masterpiece.

The characters are so well developed, that the more one reads the more compelling the story becomes. Not failing to mention such a fresh sense of humor that makes this novella very funny. This same quality appears in the other five short stories gathered in this Vintage edition.

One may complain that Roth has not much creativity, writing about only one subject: the young Jewish man in the late 50's. But that is not really true. His stories are similar not because of the lack of imagination, but because the writer cares to focus his attention in this subject. And, although, it seems a limited issue at first, with his words it becomes easily universal, because above all the stories concern on the human condition.

Among the stories, it is possible to find one the finest Roth's short texts: `Defender of the faith'. The surreality of the proximity of the war and the dispute between the two main characters somehow reminds the tour de force present in the movies made by Amos Gitai. The absurd of the situation, and the characters focusing on another --maybe smaller-- issue are funny, when we don't think of the imminent situation.

One doesn't have to look any further to find hints of the themes and characters that would be present in further works. The daughter in `Epstein' is somehow a draft of the daughter who would appear much more developed in his novel `American Pastoral'.

All in all, `Goodbye, Columbus and Five Short Stories' is a good introduction for those curious to get into Roth's universe, and, it is a fundamental reading for the ones who like his books.