Product Description

Roth's award-winning first book instantly established its author's reputation as a writer of explosive wit, merciless insight, and a fierce compassion for even the most self-deluding of his characters.

Goodbye, Columbus is the story of Neil Klugman and pretty, spirited Brenda Patimkin, he of poor Newark, she of suburban Short Hills, who meet one summer break and dive into an affair that is as much about social class and suspicion as it is about love. The novella is accompanied by five short stories that range in tone from the iconoclastic to the astonishingly tender and that illuminate the subterranean conflicts between parents and children and friends and neighbors in the American Jewish diaspora.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #2006128 in Books
• Published on: 1980-04-08
• Released on: 1980-04-08
• Original language: French
• Binding: Mass Market Paperback
• 369 pages

From Publishers Weekly
In 1974's My Life as A Man Roth examines how a writer revises his reality, compiling two stories "by" one Peter Tarnopol and a third in which Tarnopol is the fictional protagonist. Vintage will simultaneously reissue Goodbye, Columbus , Roth's National Book Award-winning first novel, together in a new edition with five short stories.
Copyright 1993 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
This release by the 1960 National Book Award winner will acquaint listeners with the world of American Jews in the 1950s and to Roths wit and insight into the problems accompanying assimilation. A widely respected American writer, Roth is the author of 22 books, including American Pastoral (Audio Reviews, LJ 10/1/97) and I Married a Communist (Houghton, 1998). Goodbye, Columbus features Neil Klugman, a young man from Newark living with his aunt, and Brenda Patimkin, an archetypal Jewish American Princess, whose summer romance illustrates the tension between old world values and the new suburb-based culture. Provocative and entertaining, the other stories tell of likable characters, mostly men, who embrace their Jewishness yet must face conflicts in family and community. Although written nearly 40 years ago, these stories illustrate truths about America and its relationship with Jews that remain relevant today. The readers, who include actors Theodore Bikel and Elliott Gould, are all excellent, capturing the particular characteristics of Jewish American speech. Highly recommended for all libraries.Nancy R. Ives, SUNY at Geneseo
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From AudioFile
Roth's virtuosity is magnificently dramatized with five excellent and quite different reading voices, each matched to the text. Do you remember the size of a Patimkin sink? Then Brenda will come at you like a lover out of your own and cherished past. If not, then John Rubinstein's young voice will be a spectacular treat. Rubinstein also performs "Epstein," a story that might have been written by Irwin Shaw, if Shaw were ever that funny. Theodore Bikel gives a heavily accented rendition of "Eli, The Fanatic." This might have been by Isaac Bashevis Singer, if Singer were ever that direct. When Roth is good, he is very very good. He's the best. As is this package. B.H.C. An AUDIOFILE Earphones Award Winner. (c)AudioFile, Portland, Maine