Customer Reviews

Philip Roth: Novels and Stories 1959-1962: Goodbye, Columbus & Five Short Stories / Letting Go (Library of America)

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Philip Roth is a giant of American literature, and this select volume by the Library Of America is a perfect addition to everyone who cares about great literature and likes to see where the greatness began and how it grows in the world of literature. Philip Roth's stature is right up there with Twain, Whitman, Hawthorne, Updike, Joyce Carol Oates, and Faulkner. He writes with clarity, and honesty about life, love, death, and has a sense of humor that is sometimes so subtle it is missed. To complain about the size of the print on the binding is as irrelevant as it is mean spirited. Great writers provide substance, how the publisher presents it is of little real consequence. This, and the second volume are a must for all bibliophiles.

The stories announce Roth to the world. The long title story 'Goodbye Columbus' seems to announce that a successor to F. Scott Fitzgerald has at last appeared in the world of American writing. The freshness, the youth , the energy, the romanticism tempered by irony. 'Goodbye Columbus' is not Gatsby but it signals the coming of a great new star.
In the other stories too Roth appears with a mastery beyond his age, a techical skill and brilliance, a power of irony, a delightful humor.
He also comes with an offensive irrevence and critical view of Jewish American middle - class hypocrisy. But I believe that as Roth himself would later intimate even the fiercest of that criticism ( as it would come late in the true genius work, 'Portnoy') bore in it a tremendous amount of real feeling, identification, love.
Roth too is a superemely American writer concerned with the broader American destiny and meaning. His politics are not to my taste but one feels in his writing a real sense of the touch and taste of American life, an exuberant appreciation.
These are the first writings of what will become a major American writer.
It is interesting that the novel is in my judgment a flat disappointment. And Roth's career does have many flops mixed in with the gems. Perhaps that is the price of experiment or speaking in many voices.
But the opening stories, the 'Goodbye Columbus' collection is a winner.

Written in 1962, following the success of "Goodbye, Columbus," that won the 1960 National Book Award, "Letting Go" focuses on the inherent risks of love and independence while lacking family support and struggling financially. The plot revolves around Gabe Wallach, son of a successful NY dentist, who teaches literature at the University of Iowa. Gabe purposely attends graduate school in Iowa and starts teaching there to be away from his clingy father. Following the death of Gabe's mother, his father strives to strengthen father-son relationship, though Gabe thinks his father mistreated his mother and is cool to the idea. On his visits to NY, the father and son struggle to bond and despite the father's best efforts, there is no breakthrough. Martha is a waitress with two children and is older than Gabe, who becomes his girlfriend. He meets her in Iowa, but their relationship is short-lived due to differences in temperament and general outlook on life. Gabe initially appears happy with her, but comes to disapprove of her taste in clothes to name just one thing. He fails to connect with her intellectually because of a lifestyle devoid of books. One gets the sense, absent worries about money, he is ambling through life infected with ambivalence about the purpose of his life. When they argue it's much ado about nothing. While teaching at the university, Gabe befriends Paul Hertz, a former graduate student like him, who is teaching at a local college. Their friendship begins when Gabe lends Paul his copy of "The Portrait of a Lady." In the subsequent meetings, Gabe meets Paul's wife, Libby, and helps him get hired at the university where he teaches for better pay. Paul and Libby are also from NY, who fell in love and defied their parents by marrying who opposed their union on religious grounds. Paul is Jewish. Libby is Catholic. Though both are not religious. Their intention to marry severs family ties and they are forbidden to contact their parents. As a result they move to Ohio and both begin working. Their relationship is tested soon when Libby develops a kidney problem and can no longer work making Paul the sole provider. Later on, when Libby accidentally becomes pregnant, the doctor warns her about the potential risk to her life for carrying the pregnancy to term. Paul is disappointed by the pregnancy knowing they could not raise a child on his meager income. After the abortion, their relationship deteriorates and Libby accuses Paul of being distant and lacking desire for her. Paul responds he doesn't want to excite her for health reasons. When Libby considers becoming pregnant again Paul is noncommittal, so they agree to adopt and receive vital help from Gabe. Reading the description of their lives, Libby's illness and their thwarted dreams, makes one acutely aware of the risks of failure in the absence of support from the extended family. Lastly, when I survey Mr. Roth's oeuvre, I notice that this was his last novel before he became concerned with shiksas, Alexander Portnoy, Nathan Zuckerman, Mickey Sabbath et al. His books are a pleasure to read!